Bacon wrapped asparagus

I made this as a side-dish to go with some cheater spaghetti. Hubby's mom gifted us with several jars of spaghetti sauce that I've been trying to get through.

My mom ALWAYS sautees asparagus. Well, lo and behold, a little internet search showed me that I could indeed ROAST asparagus in the oven!! So, I took a few spears of asparagus each, wrapped it in some of el cheapo bacon we bought from Ralphs (nice and thick so it's quite good). Drizzle with olive oil, pepper, salt, and sprinkle some chopped shallots on top. So.darn.good.com! Waaay better than pan frying -- it doesn't get that weird...metallic taste. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Stuffed Chicken

This dinner was a test-run for a dinner get-together than never happened. My bad. I got the basic idea from my latest Rachel Ray magazine (I think for February) but I will definitely tweak it for next time.

I made mashed potatoes (about 4 smallish medium red potatoes, I believe) with skim milk, butter, salt, and pepper. Added lemon rind but I think some grated parmesan cheese would be even better. Oh and some chopped sun dried tomatoes would give the potatoes a little kick I think.

Seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper, and spooned some of the mashed potato underneath the skin. Drizzled olive oil over the chicken and sprinkled with some more pepper and...shoot, thyme? Rosemary? I don't remember :\ Anyway, I also added to Rachel's recipe by baking the chicken over a veggie medley of carrot, celery, and onion. I don't have a roasting rack, so putting the chicken on top of something helps me to avoid that nasty mushy unappetizing chicken crap that you get if you would bake the chicken in a pan like mine.

Anyway, it was hella good, although I think it could be improved. It needs a little something to make it really *pop*.

I served this with garlic bread that I made from some leftover hot dog buns (don't you hate how there are always more buns than dogs?) and the leftover potatoes.

Chicken "Tortilla" Soup

I made this for dinner one night to go with some simple burritos. I love love LOVE soup in the winter.

I took a recipe from an old cookbook I had -- that one just called for chicken broth simmered with tomatoes, cumin, salt, and pepper. F that I say! I also added a carrot, 2 stalks of celery, and onion to simmer with the yummylicious tomato/chicken broth base. The flavors of the veggies really mix together wonderfully. On top I added a few slices of avocado (obviously) and some chopped fresh cilantro. Cumin is really the secret ingredient here -- it is so spicy and flavorful! I forget the exact measurements but I think it was 4 cups of broth, and I used about 3 medium tomatoes. Salt, pepper, and cumin to taste.

"Tortilla" is in quotes because normally I bake a tortilla into little chips but I was too lazy to do so this time.

Simple Pork Chops

This one was a no-brainer dinner. It's been tough for me to make new things or come up with something really yummy for dinner because, quite frankly, when I get home from work the last thing I want to do is cook up a crazy dinner.

The pork chops were seasoned with black pepper and coarse salt, I think. I put it in the pan for a few minutes on each side, then added some water and simmered until done. Simple, but edible. :)

I sauteed some sliced apples to go with the pork chops but I should've added more sugar. Or not used granny smith. It was okay, but not sweet enough.

The broccoli sucked @$$. I can't make decent broccoli for the life of me.

Oyako Donburi

Damon loves this dish. So do I, although I can't make it as well as my mommy :(

Oyako literally means adult and child. Hence, the chicken and the egg. Donburi is just any kind of rice bowl, basically. So this is a chicken and egg ricebowl.

I made it from memory last night but couldn't get the flavors quite right. I needed to add more soy sauce, I think. Or I might've added too much water. Anyway, here's the run down:

- prep rice in the rice cooker
- combine dashi soup stock, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar to make a liquid mixture (this is the hard part 'cause you have to play around with the portions to get it right. i obviously did not).
- throw in pieces of chicken breast and sliced onion and let it simmer until the onions are soft and the chicken is cooked thoroughly.
- spoon out some of the chicken and onion onto a small, hot pan.
- surround the chicken with a beaten egg and make an almost omelet (it should be a little runny), add some of the soy sauce mixture
- slide the egg/chicken/onion omelet-like creation onto a bowl of rice, pour more of the soy sauce mixture over the donburi as you like.

I topped with green onion and served with fried tofu (tofu dredged in white flour, topped with green onion and soy sauce).


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Hm. This dinner really lacked color.

Valentine's Day Steak Dinner

I am so behind on this blog. Where did January go?? I was sick. And married. No relation, obviously.

Anyway, I have tons of pictures stored on the computer, lots of dinners to write about, but just haven't had the time to post. I guess I'll have to go backwards.

Hubby was really sweet about Valentine's Day this year -- he sent me gorgeous flowers at work, so I decided to cook up something extra special for dinner that night.

On the menu --

- oven roasted potatoes
- pepper crusted filet mignon
- slow roasted tomatoes



The potatoes were yummy -- I just cut up some white potatoes, drizzled them with olive oil, and sprinkled with sea salt, cracked pepper, and rosemary. I didn't put them in soon enough, so even at 450 degrees they needed at least another 15 minutes to be nice and soft. They were still a little raw in the middle, but, cest la vie.

Tomatoes were sooo good. I love roasted tomatoes. I used Roma tomatoes sliced in half lengthwise. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with thyme. Put them in the oven at a low heat (I think I did around 275 degrees) and let them roast until they collapse. It took about 45 minutes for me and my oven.

The steaks were the first steaks that were semi-successful for me. I seriously don't know how to cook meat. I coated the filets with lots and lots of cracked pepper and some sea salt. I cooked them in olive oil in a hot pan about 7 minutes on each side. I burned the first side (D always is paranoid about uncooked meat so I went overboard). The second side was much more successful (and photogenic) :) I'll have to watch them more carefully next time. Oh and D's ended up a little rarer than I would've liked. Increase the time for one of his thickness.

Seriously though I was impressed by myself even :) And it was so easy!