Weekend Update

This blog is called Single Serving partially because I cook for one person….most of the time.  I love cooking for others and have been waiting a long time to have people (outside my immediate family) to cook for.    I’m beyond happy to have Dave and the kids as my guinea pigs – which sounds weird to say because they actually have a guinea pig but there you go.

On Friday – I cooked nothing. :)

Lunch was work related.  We dined at the Capital Grille.  My friend Christina and I shared the lobster & crab cake appetizer.

  I also had the the sirloin steak salad. For dinner Dave and I went to Casa Bella.   We started with bruschetta. And split the fresh mozzarella salad with sundried tomato and roasted red pepper.  I LOVE when restaurants send out individual plates when you split an appetizer. I had the Pappardelle a la Vodka.   I think pappardelle is my favorite kind of pasta. Dave had gnocchi.  Dave is a gnocchi expert.  Dave loved this gnocchi more than he loves me.

OK.  Maybe not.  But he really really liked it. He had ricotta cheesecake for dessert.  I promised to make this for him soon.  It was light and slightly lemony.  I am not a cheesecake fan but it was delicious. I had old faithful – chocolate ice cream. Needless to say we kind of forgot to eat light Friday night. Saturday morning Dave made me a delicious breakfast,  An egg sandwich w/turkey bacon on a biscuit with a side of grapes.  We ate our leftovers from dinner for lunch. Then I took over the kitchen.  Dave always likes the kids to have a homemade dinner but he’s rushing around the weeks he has them.  I made a bunch of freezer friendly things so he just has to heat them up.  First - I made Chicken Parmesan. With fresh tomato basil sauce. Topped with pepperoni.   I can’t wait for the feedback on this one. My nook helped me to find a mac and cheese recipe. (I didn’t wind up using this one actually)   I used extra sharp cheddar and swiss for the mac and cheese. There are now 4 trays in the freezer.Next up…meatballs.  Unfortunately – the messy nature of meatballs kept me from taking many pictures. Note to readers:  This wine sucks for drinking but is OK for cooking.  My apologies to anyone I gave this to for Christmas.  That means – Dave. :)   Trust me.  They were in this pot and now are in 4 freezer bags. Another project for this weekend – creating a pantry.  Dave put some wire shelves in a closet near the kitchen.  .I’ll show you the results once there’s actually stuff in there.  Right now it’s pretty bare bones.Here’s what was in the cabinets which I cleared out and put down new (green) shelf paper.  Someone I know likes green a lot. Before…After…   Finally I made a delicious pasta dish.  I roasted some tomatoes (on a cookie sheet, drizzled with olive oil, S&P, and cloves of garlic - 250 for about 2.5 hours). I used some shrimp. Spinach, lemon and cannellini beans.Penne.  All in the pot.  Basically I sautéed shallots and garlic in olive oil, added the shrimp, beans (rinsed and drained), cooked pasta, spinach, the juice and zest of 1 lemon, a sprinkle of salt and about 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper.  Once the spinach is wilted – it’s done.  It’s a combo of a recipe for a salad of shrimp and cannellini beans from Food and Wine, some Smitten Kitchen tomatoes, and a pasta dish I saw by ELR on Tasty Kitchen. All in the dish.

I should say something witty or wise but I’m getting sleepy.  It’s this weather I’ll tell you.  I just want to hibernate.

Snow Day

I’m over this snow everyone and I don’t even have to shovel it.

There’s not much new in Krissyville.  I went out to a lovely lunch with folks from work today.  I ate my weight in garlic in an attempt to not eat french fries last night at trivia.

Oh and we lost too.  I’m getting a complex.  We haven’t won in a while. 

I’m heading back to NJ tonight.  I’m going to cook over the weekend so I’ll be sure Dave takes pictures.  I’m going to make some Super Bowl food next weekend too including these beauties.

I’m going to work on my restaurant review and see if I still have any food writing skills.

I’m going to try and take the Multi-Grain Cheerios Challenge next week I got from MyBlogSpark.  I’m going to try for 4 days of work outs and 1 week of eating like I know I should.

I’ll keep you posted.

Until later.

It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma

A day after I discuss Taco Bell’s mystery meat I bring you my lunch from today.

Yes.  That’s right.  I had a bologna and cheese sandwich.

I’ve always loved bologna (and cheese).  When I was little we used to have Oscar Meyer’s and Kraft Singles.  I graduated to Boar’s Head and Land O’ Lakes sometime during my elementary/middle school days.   In the last five years I’ve been brave enough to add mustard.  

When I brought a sandwich to school and realized my dad got a deal on another brand of bologna and tried to trick me I’d immediately come home and confront him.

God bless my poor father.   He made my lunch every day and I complained about it.

In my food writing class we had to talk about a first food memory.  Mine involved – oddly enough -  bologna.  I remember watching Sesame Street.  A little girl was eating something out of a tortilla.   We didn’t have tortillas in my house (more on that below) so I used a slice of bologna with a Kraft single shredded in the center and rolled it up to resemble something like a burrito. 

I still think this is the first meal I made by myself for myself.

Side story:  My mom has not stepped foot in a grocery store in years – and is still not allowed to go unaccompanied lest she purchase everything at full price.   One year she got Jen a quesadilla maker – one of those gadgets that you plug in – kind of like a Panini press.  Anyway she was concerned she needed to go to an “International Market” to buy tortillas so Jen could use it.

I do not know what an International Market is and let her know that they sell them at Waldbaums but rest assured with her as my guide I didn’t have anything resembling Mexican food until they opened a Cozymel’s on Long Island not so long ago.   When we go anywhere remotely Mexican my mom still will only eat fajitas –but doesn’t eat any salsa, guacamole or sour cream.

Me? I now love anything mole – guac or otherwise.

****

I went to the office today instead of working from home.  Today – when it snowed so much this morning my hair was sopping wet by the time I got to work.   I am going to NJ tonight when it’s supposed to start to snow again.   I make so very little sense.

I had DVR’d an episode of What Not To Wear and am very disturbed by the commercials for My Strange Addiction where one woman wears a furry mascot suit in public and another eats the foam out of her couch cushions.

Really?????  The furry thing I’ve heard about – it was on an episode of CSI once I think (and yeah it’s tres odd) but eating foam?  Why would you even start to do that?

This is my problem.  I admit it.  I love stupid reality TV.  Way too much.  I have Real Housewives as my Facebook friends.  I can watch those girls for hours.  Give me Snooki taking out her earrings to bash Angelina over the head.  I love it when Randy tells you “You did your thing” as Jenny from the block channels Paula. I will sit mesmerized as a trainer screams in your face causing you to eventually lose 100 pounds.  Please show me the many ways that women in evening gowns can fight over a guy for roses.  Let me watch how a bunch of chefs can make an appetizer using no utensils but please. Trust me when I say this.

I do not need to see you eating your couch.

I’ve always been scared of Taco Bell

I don’t know about you – but when a restaurant (and I use that term loosely) has to say “Yes.  That’s really beef” you may want to try another establishment.

Just saying.

I don’t have a lot to report.  I’m going to do a restaurant review about Buddakan soon (it was delish) but other than that I haven’t done much since I returned from Cancun.

It’s about 7:30 PM and I’m yawning already.

I was on vacation still yesterday.  I worked from home today.  I was planning to go to the office tomorrow but they say the weather is going to be bad (AGAIN). 

I made this for dinner last night.   ELR also had this featured a bit ago and I cannot tell you the difference the pepperoni makes. 

I modified this a bit as well.  I used panko and cornmeal instead of panko and flour.  I baked the chicken instead of frying.  I had these itty bitty mini pepperoni leftover from a pepperoni pizza craving a while back.

I don’t know about this being a great snack – but it worked for me.  The small bites of pepperoni tasted like spicy meat sprinkles on a saucy chicken sundae..

OK.  Wow.  That’s the worst description ever. 

But so freaking good.  I served mine with racquet pasta.

Today I met Dave for lunch at the place we went on our fourth date.  He thought it was our second but he was mistaken.  I had the ginger chicken wontons and he had vegetarian chili.  We also split a bowl of chicken tortilla soup because we are adorable.

No real exercise today.  I was reading old blog entries and I used to work out before I did ANYTHING.  I know that once I get back to that I’ll get back to the old (new) me. 

Soon enough.

Since I don’t feel like I have much to say – I’ll leave you with some things I’m loving these days.

Knee Socks. I’ve bought ones with flowers, hearts, argyle and brown with copper glitter stripes.  In high school I used to do my best to achieve a perfect balance of having them sit not at my knee but not near my ankle lest a nun or twenty drag me to the Dean’s office.  Now they’re just the thing for keeping me warm in this weather.

Another storm tomorrow.  Really???

My nook.  This one brings me such shame. You see I love books.  So much so that I have them in various corners of my apartment.  My room at my mom’s consists of a wall of book cases.  I love the smell of libraries or bookstores.  I feel like it’s a sin that you can get the complete works of William Shakespeare for $1.99.

But at the same time I can’t put this thing down.

My JPK Paris bucket bag in purple.

This is a comfortable bag to carry.  It fits perfectly on your shoulder.  It has a pretty paisley lining.  It’s a little difficult to find something at a moment’s notice but I kind of want one in every color.

So far – I have one in tan and one in purple.

It’s nearly February so it’s time for Dove Dark Chocolate Hearts. If only these came filled with peanut butter – I’d be a happy camper.

I wouldn’t be happy with my waistline – but that’s beside the point.

Too cold for comfort

Fact:  Cancun is really warm.   So warm someone who was in our room before we got there left something…ahem…behind on the terrace.

Apparently.

Some poor guy on the hotel staff was dispatched to remove the evidence.You stay classy, Cancun!!        

Fact: New York = Antarctica.   I have traded in flip flops and a beach cover up for a get up like this.

Fact: I worked out 2x in 4 days while in Mexico.  This was the view from my treadmill.

Fact: I went to 2 for 1 Happy Hour 2x a day while in Mexico

Fact:  Here are some things I really like….

Fish tacos – eaten poolside.

Margaritas – sipped poolside.Hamburgers – eaten poolside.Guacamole  - eaten poolside.Basically – just being poolside.   The fried shrimp at TGIFridays at the Cancun Airport.   The only meal I had yesterday.Yoda at the TGIFridays at the Cancun Airport. These girls.  Some of the best friends anyone could ever have.

 

Congrats to Carrie (and Chris) – the first of us to head towards Happily Ever After.

I’ll be back tomorrow.  I’m still in a bit of detox.