(no subject)
A mostly relaxing weekend.
Friday night we hosted some friends - always fun, but always TONS of dishes to wash afterwards. DWB* brought over 2 London Broils, and DWP* brought a huge watermelon (which I'm still eating Tuesday, since Gene doesn't like watermelon)
Saturday we did a little bit of shopping for things we didn't have in the house. We now have a kitchen scale and a bathroom scale, and a charcoal grill ($25 scratch & dent special at Home Depot - pristine ones were still $38). Got some groceries too.
Sunday mostly hung out in the morning, Mom and bro came over at 3 ish, and I served them burgers and hotdogs. No big whoop, but I also made homemade banana bread, pico de gallo, and guacamole. I LOVE my guac, and it's so easy. Quantities of the ingredients depend on how big the avacados are, how large and juicy the limes are, how big the garlic cloves are. ... I adjust it until it tastes "right" to me.
I cook au piz (to the nose), which totally makes Gene squirm. Especially when I make something like the 'accidental Stroganoff" I made Saturday night to use up some of the leftover London Broil from Friday night, and some pasta that was nearing the end of its life. I was originally going to make fajitas, but then I started playing around. It then started turning into onions, mushrooms, and beef in a brown gravy, but as I tasted it, I felt that all it needed was a dollop of sour cream to turn it into Stroganoff. Gene loved it, and now he wants the recipe. Gah, I didn't even measure. Sort of like how I was making "Garbage Soup" to use up the leftovers in the fridge, and inadvertantly created a favorite soup for my brother - tomato and ham soup - and I had to figure out what I did the first time when he wanted me to make it again.
Monday, we moped around quite a bit, watching a Forever Knight marathon on Chiller network, interspersed with doing some small chores. We moved office furniture out of the bedroom and into ... the office! I scrubbed the shower, took a shower, and made dinner while he ran over to his parent's house to feed the kitties. Rutgers had a game that was letting out, so he got stuck in more traffic than usual. Dinner was chicken fried rice (we'd had Chicken Tikka Masala (frozen from Costco) and rice for lunch, so I made extra rice because he wanted fried rice for dinner) and broccoli (I'd taken 2 lbs of broccoli out of the freezer and forgot to cook it Sunday, so we ate it for both lunch and dinner on Monday)
Guacamole
3 ripe Haas avacados, mashed
juice of 2 limes
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 serrano pepper, diced fine
generous pinch Kosher salt (about 1/4 tsp?)
Pico de Gallo
leftover bits of tomatoes that weren't big enough to slice - about 2-3 cups chopped tomato
finely diced white onion, about 1/4 of a large one
about 2 tbs chopped cilantro (the rest was getting smooshy, and la familia doesn't like cilantro like I do)
1/4 serrano pepper, diced fine
juice of 1 lime
generous pinch Kosher salt (about 1/4 tsp?)
Banana Bread
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/banana-bread-with-pecans-recipe/index.html
Fried Rice
leftover refrigerated rice - about 2 cups
1 large chicken breast (cooked), cut up into cubes
1/2 large white onion, diced fine
4 large garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 serrano pepper, diced fine (that finally used it up, I'd used 1/4 the weekend before)
1/2 cup chicken stock
soy sauce to taste
2 eggs, scrambled
vegetable oil
In a wok, I cooked eggs in about 1/2 tbs vegetable oil, set aside. Warmed chicken through and added some soy sauce, set aside. 1 Tbsp oil + aromatics, when soft, I added the rice and started breaking it up. Added stock and soy, continued to break up the rice to coat in the liquid. Added chicken and eggs back in, and served.
(We have two Dana's in our group - one's female, the other's male. W stands for "with". You do the math)