First of all: Dinners.
Monday night we had a chef's salad (salad + salami + pepperoni + cheese + hard boiled eggs = chef's) and stuffed portabello mushrooms. I cooked cannellini beans with onion, garlic, hot peppers and some chopped pepperoni. Then I put some asiago on the mushrooms, topped with the bean mixture, then some fresh sage and topped with mozzarella. Then bake. This is something I used to make ALL the time. Because it is easy and filling and yummy. And you can stuff a portabello with damn near anything. But we havent made it in forever it seems. So it was nice to get back to it.
Tuesday we had pork and pasta bake. It is from a new Italian cookbook I got from Matty's aunt for Christmas. First you saute onions, carrots and garlic until soft. Then add pancetta, mushrooms and ground pork. Cook until the pork is done and then add white wine, canned tomatoes and fresh sage and simmer 20-30 minutes (depending on how hungry you are). While it is simmering, make a mozzarella and parmesan bechamel. This bechamel recipe was actually the best I have made and am really happy with it. I will have to remember it. (If you are looking for a good bechamel or cheese sauce recipe let me know and I will post it. I just cant remember it all off the top of my head). Also cook half a pound of penne. When the penne is done, mix it with the bechamel. Pour the pork mixture into a baking dish and then pour the penne-bechamel on top. Top with some more parmesan and then bake 30 minutes until golden brown. It is delicious. As with everything else I post, if anyone wants the actual recipe let me know and I will totally post it. I had this leftover for lunch today and it was almost as tasty as it was Tuesday. Note: this makes quite a bit! So you need a big baking dish and a bunch of friends. Or a love of leftovers. I would say maybe 2 dinner servings (with nothing else, I got too lazy to make a salad or a veggie to go with it) and 4 lunch servings.
Last night we made Mediterranean Chicken Stew from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food cookbook which I also got for Christmas. I have to say I was underwhelmed and we will not be making it again. First off, it isnt a stew by my definition. It was a wet saute. But the liquid was thin (like a soup) but there wasn't even close to enough of it to actually be a soup. So it was just kinda soppy. Second off, it wasnt that tasty. It was kinda boring. The only changes we made were that we used red instead of white wine vinegar and used mixed olives instead of kalamata. And we served it over premade polenta (the slice and bake kind) cuz we couldnt find polenta (or Matty couldnt anyway). So I guess if you are looking for a kinda bland meal one day, go for it. But meh . . .Movies and Television:
Not much to report. We watched Nightmare Before Christmas. Cuz I havent seen it since high school. And we have continued watching the second season of The Wire. Still a fan.
Other things to report: My sidebar
So I dont know if any of you pay any attention to what I put on my sidebar. But you should. Some new arrivals:
Cake Wrecks: Tagline: "When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong." This is one of the funniest new blogs out there IMHO. And it has gotten me to wander bakeries wherever I see them in search of a Wrecks. I found a few good ones over the holiday. And believe me, once you start looking, they are out there. For instance this one? Matty and I saw this cake in Lancaster. Yeah. Flaming deer. So check it out if you dont already. Oh and I first heard about this story on Cake Wrecks. And this week it was reported that little Adolf Hitler and his sister Aryan Nation have been removed from their parents. Shocker.
Fuck You Penguin: Tagline: "A blog where I tell cute animals what's what." Now you know I love penguins. I LOVE penguins. So I was a bit concerned when I first heard about Fuck You Penguin. But then I read it. And I am hooked. I cant really say any more than that. Just check it out. If you hate animals that look just too goddamn cute or you just appreciate on-point articulate humor, go. Now!
Craftastrophe: Tagline: "because handmade isn't always pretty." It is crafts that have just gone wrong. But not in the Cake Wreck sense. These crafts are not (necessarily) poorly done, they just make you scratch your head (or shudder) and ask (or weep) why?!? More spot on comments and hilarious finds.
Publicly Relating: To steal a description from her bio as a Blissdom Conference speaker, "a space to bridge the gap between marketing professionals and bloggers." A new blog from a friend from "way back" who now works as an "online and social media strategist at Ketchum PR."
Words I Learned From Reading David Foster Wallace: This is by the same lady as Publicly Relating and the title is pretty self explanatory.
So that is my roundup of new stuff on my sidebar. I am also trying to keep Goodreads updated so y'all can see what I am reading. As you can see there are many books that I read on and off and my full time book right now is Duma Key which I am really really enjoying. I should write a whole post about my Stephen King-like. Matty might call it an obsession. I don't think it is. Really. Truly. Really. I mean it. If he happened to break down on South Street I promise I wouldnt lock him up in our apartment and make him rewrite the ending of the Dark Tower. I promise. I am just trying to read his entire catalog. Everything he has ever written. Ever! No really. Just the easily accessible published stuff. And probably just the fiction.
Right, well I am so not going to actually go back and update on anything old. Sorry. I have a headache, and a backache and a throatache and I wanna go home.
2 comments:
Wow, those are some meaty posts you've had. Thanks for all the updates. I had no idea Ms. Publicly Relating had a new [work] blog, thanks for the head's up.
can you post the recipe for the pork and pasta bake? it sounds good.
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