Italian Sausage and Onions

My Sunday dinners are usually extremely simple, if I happen to eat dinner.  For some reason, it is a common occurrence that I stuff myself at lunch with friends after church; today was no exception.  Today, dreary and drizzling as it was, was the perfect day for pho.  After finishing lunch at 2, I wasn't hungry again until 8 (and even then, I really only made dinner so that I would have food to bring to work tomorrow).

So, I settled for something simple.  The recipe I loosely followed can be found here:  Italian Sausage and Onions Recipe

I modified it by drizzling the onions and the sausage with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, freshly ground pepper, in addition to the rosemary and the kosher salt.  The whole meal took me about 30 minutes.  While the sausage was in the oven, I just cooked up some yu choy with dried shrimp and heated up some leftover rice.  And of course, I made extra so that I would have lunch for tomorrow.  I love days at work when I am excited to eat my lunch.  

I liked it.  Simple and easy and it hit the spot.

Caprese Salad

As someone who has not been especially fond of cheese, I was as surprised as anyone when I realized that I enjoy eating fresh mozzarella.  I think it's the light flavor and soft texture.  I was eating it as I was cutting it.  It was marvelous.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

I love roasted vegetables.  I especially love the simplicity of them.  Just toss them with some ingredients, pop them in the oven and they're good to go.

Previously, I've made roasted cauliflower on multiple occasions as a complement to meat dishes.  (The recipe I use can be found here: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/roasted_cauliflower/)

My roommate and I decided to venture into the world of Brussels sprouts since we both had not been exposed to them as children.  For a good portion of my life, I had Brussels sprouts confused with alfalfa sprouts.  After we cooked them, the consensus was that we would add Brussels sprouts to our rotation of vegetables we consume.

Chicken Pesto Pizza

I wish I had posted this earlier, because I can't quite remember everything that I did.  The crust of the pizza is  a whole wheat pita.  I brushed both sides with olive oil and heated it on a pan for about 45 seconds on each side.  For the chicken, I boiled it, cut it into small pieces and tossed it with pesto.  The cheese on top is cheddar cheese.  (Ideally, it would have been fresh mozzarella, but I didn't have any on hand.)  Then I put the pizza in a toaster oven and broiled it for about 2 minutes, or until the cheese was melted.

With the leftover chicken, I stir-fried kale with chopped onions and then tossed the kale and the chicken together.

Low-Fat Banana Bread

One of the oldest recipes I've been using is this recipe for low-fat banana bread:  http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,184,140180-237203,00.html

I found this recipe almost 4 years ago when I first really started cooking and baking.  The compliments I've received on this banana bread are especially satisfying since no butter is used.  And I don't especially enjoy using butter while cooking or baking, so when it comes to making different types of breads, I'm all for using alternatives.

I never seem to have nuts on hand, so I didn't use any chopped nuts.  It does seem like it would be a great addition to it though.  Also, in an effort to be less wasteful, I use the whole egg, not just the whites.

I made this last week after a 3 year hiatus.  Though I didn't get a chance to taste any, people said they really liked it.  No pictures though.

Ja Jang Myun

Today I was especially excited to make dinner for a few reasons:

• I didn't eat dinner yesterday.
• I had time to make dinner.
• The last time I made Ja Jang Myun was about a year ago.

Pad See Ew

Pad See Ew is my go-to dish whenever I go to Thai restaurants.  I have realized that when I go to restaurant, I order the tried-and-true dishes.  As much as I like to try new things, the fear that the new dish will not be quite as good often holds me back from trying a new dish.  (Maybe this is a sign that I'll be resistant to change as I age, or am I resistant to change already?)

Anyway, I stumbled upon a recipe for Pad See Ew recently and decided that it would be my next culinary experiment.  Here's the recipe: http://appetiteforchina.com/recipes/pad-see-ew

In my spring break slothfulness, I had no desire to venture out to a Chinese grocery store for the requisite mushroom flavored soy sauce, so I tried the method that Diana mentioned in her blog:  soaking shiitake mushrooms in soy sauce for about an hour.  All in all, I'm almost positive that I could taste the mushroom infused soy sauce, but for convenience sake, I will purchase and use the mushroom flavored soy sauce next time.

I must say that the results were satisfactory.  They were not outstanding, just satisfactory.  And I think I will add this to my repertoire of quick and tasty meals.  It only took me 30 minutes to cook this dish, even while following a new recipe and not moving especially quickly.

Dianomite Cake

Every so often I am hit with a stroke of genius.  I would never classify myself as someone artistic; the way that I think is too bound to order.  Even when I try to make something random, it so often defaults to something following an orderly pattern.

Anyway, my friend Diana's birthday was coming up soon.  We had previously collaborated together on creating these culinary masterpieces of birthday cakes.  And so, I wanted to make one for her and her twenty-fifth birthday.  In college, she was often called Diano-mite and it was only fitting that she had a dynamite cake.  Even though I made it back in November, it remains one of my greatest accomplishments of the recent past.

The sticks of dynamite are red velvet Swiss rolls filled with almond cream cheese icing.  The red covering over each stick of dynamite is fruit roll up.  The timer is a zebra cake and the fuses are Twizzlers.  And the tie that is holding all of it together is a fruit by the foot.

I must admit that it was not the best thing I've ever tasted.  But it might be the best thing I've ever created.

I cook to relieve stress.

Somewhere amidst grading papers, planning lessons, emailing parents, and creating activities, I have to make time to cook, in order to maintain my sanity.  Perhaps it is because I am such an escapist that I love to cook.  When you're cooking, unless of course you're waiting for water boil, you have no time to think of anything else, you are completely engrossed in the task at hand.  It's then that I can stop thinking about the nicer way I could have disciplined a student or how I still can't seem to get my students' test scores up, or how the education system is such an unsolvable problem; I can solely focus on making food taste good.

Here it is, some of my endeavors over the past few months:

Spicy Hunan Beef with Cumin

I absolutely love the taste of cumin.  I also absolutely love Hunan and Szechuan food (maybe because they use cumin).  And I love beef.  All of my favorite things in one dish :)  I was pleased with how it turned out.  It definitely was nothing earth shattering, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Recipe:  http://appetiteforchina.com/recipes/spicy-hunan-beef-with-cumin/

Vinegar-Glazed Chicken

This one turned out just okay.  My picture looks nothing like the picture on the blog.  I suppose that's okay.  And I suppose that it may be because I don't especially like to measure things when I cook.

Recipe:  http://appetiteforchina.com/vinegar-glazed-chicken/

 Mapo Tofu Ramen (Mabo Ramen)

I just made this on Wednesday.  It was an interesting dinner to make.  Even though it tasted just like what I thought it would taste like:  ramen and mapo tofu, I was still pleasantly surprised.  Although, I think I need a break from hot bean sauce.  I think I've had too much in my life and need to wait a few months before cooking with it again.

Recipe:  http://appetiteforchina.com/recipes/mapo-tofu-ramen/