the secret life of food

french toast

2008-07-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

Exactly a week ago today Mia and I had the most decadent of breakfasts.

We had French Toast with strawberries, Greek yogurt and powdered sugar. It was as would be imagined to die for. One of the things that really made this was that we went heavy on the vanilla in the "batter" for the toast, and didn't put nutmeg or cinnamon in at all. The vanilla really helped smooth the strawberry and yogurt tartness out. Also it is important to note that strawberries when used as a condiment like this always benefit from a bit of sugaring before hand.

a nothing

2008-07-04T07:32:00.001-07:00

To me, a true sign of a good cook, is the ability to create something delicious out of nothing, in no time.

It is not everyday that you have the time or patience to go off and create labor intensive meals, certainly I love it, but the majority of the time lets face it, you arrive home from work starving and want something delicious and fast! There are some standards that work here, almost any stir-fry, the Ma-Po Tofu that I love to make, a quick fresh sauce for pasta, lots of things will be successful.

There are days when there is also not a great deal of ingredient in the house and you have not even the patience for these stand-bys. I will admit that on days like that I sometimes admit defeat and eat out of the fridge. However I find that egg-drop soup is an excellent solution for days like this. All you really need is chicken broth and an egg. The other night I was cold (this was a little while ago) and feeling a bit under the weather, so soup was exactly what I wanted. In addition to the broth and egg I added a dash of curry powder, diced jalapeños, and spinach. I am happy to report that it was a total success!

baking

2008-07-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

I have always had a knack for baking with yeast. Part of this is practice, and part of this is pure luck it seems, because I've done some things that by all accounts should have ended in tremendous failure but didn't.

The best example I have of a should-have-been-failed endeavor was at my parent's house. I decided that I would make cinnamon rolls for the next morning's breakfast. I of course decided this rather late in the game so was trying to get about two risings and baking starting when I was already tired. This particular recipe (and I believe most for cinnamon rolls) has you scald and skim milk, then let it cool down until you can add the yeast to start in the milk. I scalded and skimmed, and then did not have the patience to let it cool down, but I knew it would kill the yeast if I didn't, so I stuck it in the freezer for as long as my patience would allow; which was probably a maximum of five minutes. I took it out added the yeast and went on my way, despite the fact that the yeast had formed balls and fallen to the bottom, something that I decided to just ignore.

Needless to say, when I returned to look at my dough, it was not risen. So I decided that I would start some yeast with sugar and water and then just knead it in with the appropriate amount of flour. This actually worked and the buns turned out just fine, not even particularly tough from being over kneaded. So yes I would say that this is an example of the luck that I so depend on in my knack for baking with yeast.

Recently I baked concha rolls to bring to a party at Alex's. I followed the recipe and was rewarded with really lovely dough, and some tasty buns, my only complaint was that the bottoms were a little too brown, I still have no idea how to bake in a gas oven

Mexican Concha Rolls

3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 packages (8 grams each) Active Dry Yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter or margarine, cut into pieces
2 eggs
Cinnamon-Chocolate Topping (recipe follows)

In bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, undissolved yeast, and salt. Heat water, milk, and butter until very warm (120° to 130°F/50° to 55°C). Gradually add to dry ingredients; beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Add eggs and 1/2 cup flour; beat 2 minutes at high speed. With spoon, stir in enough remaining flour to make soft dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth, about 4 to 6 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top.

Cover; let rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 35 to 45 minutes. Punch dough down. Remove dough to floured surface. Divide dough into 14 equal pieces; shape into balls. Place balls on 2 greased baking sheets. With palm of hand, flatten each ball slightly. Flatten each portion of Cinnamon-Chocolate Topping into a 2 1/2-inch round; place 1 round on each dough ball. With sharp knife, make cuts, 1/4 inch deep, on rolls to resemble seashells. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 20 to 40 minutes. Bake at 375°F/190°C for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from sheets; let cool on wire racks.

Cinnamon-Chocolate Topping: In large bowl, stir together 1/2 cup sugar and 1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened. Stir in 1 egg yolk, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa, and 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon. Divide mixture into 14 equal portions.

Chicken Bombs

2008-06-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

so, there have been a few questions about my mention of "chicken bombs".

A chicken bomb is actually an imitation of a meal that I order sometimes at David's Place, a tasty dive on the way back from the beach in RI. Hopefully I'll get to go there on Monday as we're planning on going to the beach....I think I'll order the fried clams...

Anyhow there is a "sandwich" that they call a chicken bomb, so I call it that too.

It's vaguely like a fajita on a roll. Chicken cut into long strips that have been cooked on a griddle, preferably one full of "flavor" (read used to cook tons of stuff in a short order place). There are also lots of sauteed peppers and onions in long strips. This is all served on a roll with melty cheese on top. I don't have a picture 'cause we ate them too quickly this time.

They are best consumed outside at a picnic table with clam chowder to start and a root beer float to finish.

midnite snack

2008-06-09T22:42:00.000-07:00

can't sleep:
made smoovie instead.
contents:
cantaloupe, orange juice, yogurt

picture won't load, but it looks just like this one, except the picture was taken tonight and it was in my hand, and the background was my room not the kitchen window sill.

Also you know the NYTimes' the Minimalist?
well I am currently addicted to his videos

Lunch success!

2008-06-05T15:32:00.000-07:00

Today it was hot and humid. Finally. Really the weather has been less than springy. Of course we have now skipped straight to summer, but that's ok. We'll over look that weathorr because it doesn't matter what we think you'll do whatever it is you desire anyhow.

So normal lunchy things were not looking so appealing, too hot for things like a sandwich!

But I did have three cucumbers. So I decided to make cucumber yogurt soup. I've done this before, but this time I actually thought about it a little before having at it. So in addition to three cucumbers, the rest if the yogurt, salt and pepper. I also added walnuts, garlic, olive oil, and white vinegar. It was quite tasty, and far more filling that I would have anticipated.

There's no picture because it looks as you think it would: off white with little green bits.

Tonight, we're going to have a little thing that I like to call chicken bombs. This is when you explode a chicken and feast on it's charred remains.

Seriously

Drinks!

2008-04-20T14:02:00.001-07:00

Summer is sneaking up on us, and that means that a lot of my food concerns move to delicious cool drinks. There comes a certain point when it's hot that I'm not interested in food. Really I would be ok if I could consume all of my food in milkshake/smoothie/lemonade form.

Sometimes I want thirst quenchers: like this raspberry lemonade that I whipped up the first warm weekend a week or two ago. All I did was muddle a few raspberries into some lemonade that I had whipped up (half a lemon and sugar to taste) for Mia and myself.

Then I want meals in drink form. My new favorite thing is an orange Julius. I had only known about these because I think in a childhood book "Where's Julius" they drank them. Mia suggested last summer when I was hungry, thirsty and hot that I make one. I immediately thought it sounded disgusting and didn't believe her. Blend yogurt and orange juice? nothing about that seemed like a good idea. But I guess it sounded good enough for me to try. I was proven delightfully wrong! It's delicious! I blend totally by eye orange juice, yogurt, sugar and vanilla together, I love it!

there has been food

2008-04-06T13:07:00.000-07:00

I don't want you all to think that our vow to have a better culinary February (and subsequent months) went unfulfilled. We simply have been remiss in our blawging.

so I think that this will be a post of many pictures and some words of explanation, but no in detail description of the meals.

Hot and Sour soup and Hunan Beef with Cumin
These were both recipes that I had been wanting to try for a long time. I had Yotom and Alex over for dinner one night and we three made this dinner, it was ridiculously delicious.

Happy St. Patricks Day!
Even though the cake is green it was orange flavored.

Easter!
Alyssa and I had Pizza for Easter!! one was brie and pecans, another had mushrooms and artichoke hearts, and the third had asparagus, leeks, and asiago.

ok that's all I have the patience for

Update

2008-02-29T08:47:00.001-08:00

Update: Since the last post was written, Mia's mom bought her jam. Thanks, Mom!

Also, check out her recipe for blue cheese meatloaf...

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches

2008-02-26T09:20:00.001-08:00

After heading off to college, eating went from being effortlessly delicious to annoyingly unsatisfying. The dining hall at the UofC was actually very good compared to most and, once you learned the system, you could put together a pretty well balanced meal. It would probably cost a fortune and take half an hour to acquire since you had to go to three different stations and wait in three different lines, but it could be done.

Yet no amount of ice cream or Bartlett cookies could make up for not having a kitchen of our own and the ability to eat what we wanted, when we wanted. In addition to just craving home-cooking, everyone missed something a little different. For me, it was a good old peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Sometimes you just want something simple and easy on the palate and the stomach. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are the perfect combination of sweet and salty flavors and provide the whole grains and proteins we need to feel satisfied after a meal.

I could have made myself a PBJ at the dining hall, but the peanut butter and jelly were in tiny little packets and didn't taste very good. Plus, the cost of a PBJ (since you were charged per tiny packet of PB) was exorbitant and left you feeling unsatisfied, even if the sandwich tasted good.

I am reminded of all of this by the fact that I recently discovered that my parents have no jam! Seriously, none. When we were kids we usually had both store bought jam and homemade peach preserves. Thankfully my parents still keep peanut butter on hand and had some honey tucked into the back corner of a cabinet.

I suppose that they have graduated out of the stage of life when small children demand simplicity in the kitchen, but seriously, does anyone ever stop liking peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? Perhaps your tastes develop and you begin to use a heartier bread, unsweetened peanut butter, and more grown up flavors of jam, but PBJ's never lose their charm.

Any variety will do: peanut butter and some 'berry' jam is always good (especially when the jam is made by Emily's family!), apricot or peach preserves give it a nice twist, and of course there is the much loved peanut butter and honey combination, which when topped with sliced bananas and grilled is an amazingly grown up treat. Mhmm. Yum.

A Special Tasty for a Special Girl

2008-02-11T20:48:00.000-08:00

Emily and I, as many of you know, do not agree on many things; however, one thing we have in common is a best friend named Sarah. No. It's not the same person. These Sarah's are distinct individuals. They might have the same name and the same hair color and the same complexion and the same cheekbones, but they are, in fact, not the same person.

Emily's Sarah, as I have her listed in my cell phone, came to visit this weekend. Since her flight got in at dinner time, Emily and I decided to have dinner waiting (or at least close to waiting) for her when she got in. Since the only easily accessible piece of meat in the house was chicken, we ate chicken.

One thing that Emily and I absolutely agree on, other than the fact that people named Sarah rock, is that raw chicken is disgusting. But Sarah, you are so loved, that we touched not just a little raw chicken, but a lot of raw chicken to make a tasty, tasty meal for your arrival.

The menu:

Flattened, breaded, butter fried chicken

We pounded the chicken flat and dipped it in egg and bread crumbs with cumin, paprika and kosher salt. Then we fried it in a combination of vegetable oil and butter. Yum.

Goo (interpretation on dirty rice technique, gone sorely awry)

We whir-whirred* a combination of bell peppers, jalepeno, onion, mushroom and spices to blend into cooked rice. While the fixings were delicious, the rice was astronomically overcooked. It's texture can best be described as mucilaginous (read: disgusting). We attempted to salvage the rice by turning it into an interpretation of polenta--what we ended up with can at best be called an interpretation of edible. We baked it, but not for long enough because we got hungry.

Homemade** Hot Fudge Brownie Sundaes.

However, all was made up for by this deliciousness. We started with a brownie mix my mom gave us to try then ran off to the White Hen while the brownies were baking (IN OUR NEW OVEN) and picked up some ice cream. When we got back we whipped up some hot fudge using a recipe from Emily's imagination and the intarweb. Then we combined all of the delicious ingredients into the perfect receptacles and 'eated them'***.

*verb meaning blended using an attachment to my immersion blender
**Everything except the Haagen Dazs Vanilla Bean Ice Cream was homemade
***colloquial form used in the Emily dialect found primarily in the West Loop and Windsor, CT

Good things come to those who wait....

2008-02-11T20:16:00.001-08:00

Ha. Actually, good things come to those who wish and hope and demand. After resolving to ditch convenience and get back to the creative days of yesteryear (aka summer), I put in a phone call to our landlord explaining firmly that the lack of a functioning oven for the majority of our tenure was more than an inconvenience...it had, in fact, affected our entire way of life.

The next day Arthur brought us a brand new, never been used and definitely not broken oven. It was a wonderful day. We celebrated with muffins!

The funny thing is, all of our ovens are still on the premises. We have a bit of a habitat forming here in our building for old, abandoned ovens. They're really social creatures, you see, and feel the need to stay close to one another even in their old age.

The first is hanging out on our back porch serving as a perch for the neighborhood birds. It's getting pretty disgusting, as you might imagine. It has also been completely covered with ice at least twice in the past couple of weeks.

The second oven is on the landing downstairs outside of our neighbor's door. Sidney, we're sorry! Alas, with the never ending precipitation and vicious temperatures, Arthur has not made it back out to the apartment.

Many good things have been made and eaten since the arrival of our new oven...

Third time's the charm!

A case of the Januaries

2008-02-01T13:27:00.000-08:00

January was a month of 'quick meals' for Emily and I. Gone are the days of leisurely cooking, namely due to our busy schedules and non-compliant oven.

We've perfected the art of the 20 minute meal, mainly by cooking simply, but I must admit we have on occasion reverted to college-esque cuisine.

Last night, for example, we made a meal of scrambled eggs with an abundance of mushrooms, onions, and asparagus, plus a few slices of fresh tomato on the side. While the meal certainly hit the spot, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed in my culinary creativity.

So, here's to February and high hopes for many delicious dinners to come.

oh Fudge!

2008-01-19T13:50:00.000-08:00

sorry about the title....I needed to do it...

Dear Miss Emblies:
When making fudge, hard candy, dolche de leche or any other kind of candy there are certain chemical reactions that are necessary in the process. This is why we follow recipes because these reactions need to happen. Now I know you think you're a swell cook and everything, but sometimes you really can't just throw caution to the wind and ought to get rid of your pride and just follow a recipe.
Love,
Anyone who has ever made any of the above things before

Soooo, yes. I decided that because our oven is interminably out of commission(Shane I did an empirical test...it does not "just beep" it beeps because the oven does not light), and I can only go so long with out concocting sweets in the kitchen, and Mia had most of the fixings for fudge, I decided to make fudge. However we don't have sugar. Or rather we only have brown sugar and I didn't feel like opening the new brown sugar so I only used the bit that was left in the old bags. I figured that there would not be too great of a problem as I was using fluff and sweetened condensed milk and semi-sweet chocolate...and I was right in-so-far as the fudge being sweet enough goes...it's plenty sweet. However once I determined that I had these things I decided that I would just add a little of all of these ingredients and sort of see what happened.

Well the cooking of the condensed milk and fluff went as predicted, however when I added the chocolate everything went suddenly grainy. so I have not very smooth or pliable fudge...I mean if you can call it fudge.

I feel that I have reached a pinnacle of midwesterndom having cooked something with condensed milk and fluff. Condensed milk is surprisingly delicious on it's own...you can taste that with only a little patience and heat it will become dolche di leche. Fluff is as disgusting as previously anticipated.

Anyhow, I just think it's funny because if someone else did this I would look at them with that face that I make and be like..."of course it didn't work, you know there are chemical reactions that are necessary to make that work, and thus the proportions in the recipe are probably necessary." Fine fine, someone may be smug to me.

sad news

2008-01-04T11:58:00.000-08:00

our new fantastic not broken oven...is also broken...
sad sad no oven still.
It beeps it's displeasure whenever it is plugged in. The control panel is broken. at least I don't fear a gas related fire any more. But really the sadness is beyond merely ironic.

When will we get a new oven?

2007-12-17T13:53:00.000-08:00

look! this is Mia. She is my roommate, your and my friend, the sole employee (and therefore awesome titled employee) of a cool non-profit, an aspiring lawyer, daughter, sister, girlfriend, and the temperature regulator for our Hot point oven. Check out the precise science she uses to bring the temperature down from "holy-crap-burny" to "I-will-bake-your-tarts". Your chocolate tarts that is... look!

Anyhow you might be thinking, "Emblies that seems an awfully silly thing for such an accomplished young lady to do, why don't you just put a brick in there or something?"

well dear reader we are far far beyond the point of a brick helping us. This oven can only be turned off by denying it power, and will turn itself back on when power is re-introduced, even if all the knobs are to the off position. Great! fantastic! there is nothing better than a fire-death-trap in your apartment, I mean it's like I'm living on the edge each and every day, and we all know that I love the edge. However I have to admit my desire to not die in my sleep due to a gas oven related fire far superceeds my desire to be hardcore. plus there is nothing particularly hard core about living with a broken oven. There is however something hard core about successfully baking with a broken oven, something both Mia and I have been doing! There have been the aforementioned tarts, cookies, a key lime pie...I'm pretty impressed with our perseverance. That all said:

It's time for a new oven. It has been promised to us, now all we want is that promise to be followed through on! please!

Purcell-Kirschner-Robinson Thanksgiving!

2007-11-24T18:32:00.001-08:00

I have to admit that I have very few pictures of thanksgiving day proper because I wasn't there for most of the time and then my camera was left in the basement of my house. We had thanksgiving at my aunt and Uncle's house (father's side). My mother's side cousin's and aunt and uncle were all out too. So I walked into quite the noisy family gathering! I love it! Everyone is telling everyone else what to do and how to do it...in detail. Frankie to tom...you're bruising my martini, mom and Joyce to Regan, you're tables have to be set up differently....all the men, you think that's carving a turkey? Everyone to grandma GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN!!!!!! Evan to Dylan, you think that's enough food? you have to eat 3 more bites of that before you get any more Martinelli's sparkeling cider, James to Dylan, I'm hardcore because I eat my food...etc!

not a silent moment. There were 13 of us all (the big party was Friday for grandma's 85th, but that will be another post)
So: food.
Hors d'oeuvres: Ashtrays (Regan) little filo dough things full of sausage olives ranch dressing(?)
cumin shrimp.
spinach artichoke dip
bread with Hummus, roasted red peppers and mozzarella
celery with blue cheese stuffing
salami, provolone w/ hummus on bread

Dinner
There was clearly turkey...one normal and one small portion "small portion" that Tom smoked, and gravy. Sausage stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry-orange relish, marshmallow sweet potatoes for Frank, mashed potatoes with bacon and a huge salad with pear, cranberries, apple, blueberry, cashews, and you know lettuce.

molto vino...mommy had a blutini ha! and was coherent after it; we don't give her enough credit about her tolerance.

Then there was pie. Apple, with a beautiful cornucopia decoration, pumpkin pie with orange zest and pumpkin pie with out orange zest for Regan, all served if desired with whipped cream!

anyhow my family is amazingly feisty all of them, and incredibly opinionated, but it's ok they'll charm the pants off of you!

Thanksgiving at the Fioritto's

2007-11-24T13:39:00.000-08:00

This was the first year in a while that the house wasn't full of college students on Thanksgiving. When I was a kid, my parents invited international students for the holiday and for the past four years my friends and I trekked down to Indiana for the good food and company.

This year it was just the four of us and my uncle, Mark (pictured below opening the wine we had with dinner).

Uncle Mark brought salmon that had been 'pickled', for lack of a better word, in a vodka, dill marinade. We ate it on pita chips with a bit of sour cream. It was great and just added to the dilemma of how much to eat before dinner to optimize the consumption of tasties. This year we had guacamole, jalapeño-artichoke dip, and the salmon for our pre-meal, football snacks.

In my opinion, Thanksgiving is not a visually appealing meal, but boy is it tasty. My mom's traditional menu includes turkey, mashed potatoes, candied yams, crock pot stuffing, orange-cranberry relish, and a vegetable of some sort--this year it was green beans (made ridiculously delicious with bacon drippings).

American Ap-pie-rel

2007-11-24T12:31:00.000-08:00

Emily and I agree that Thanksgiving is totally about the stuffing, but pie definitely makes an important and regular appearance each year at my house. While dessert often seems like an afterthought to the spread of savory delights my mom whips up, the pumpkin and pecan pies are always delicious.

This year, my dad found a recipe for sweet potato pie in the Wall Street Journal and knowing of our shared affinity for this particular pastry he requested it for Turkey Day. I took him up on the offer, excited as always to try out a new recipe.

Alas, due to the shenanigans of our treacherous oven, what might have been a beautiful addition to my mother's cooking turned out less than tasty. The oven's temperature spiked within the first ten minutes of baking and in another ten minutes the pie was burned. In a moment of mock drama, Emily collapsed to the floor in what I can only describe as the 'American Apparel' pose--you know the one.

Thankfully, I have enough sweet potatoes left over to try this again. I am hopeful that with a few tweaks to the recipe and the cooperation of the oven the second attempt will be more inspiring than the first.

making chicken not chicken

2007-11-20T11:47:00.000-08:00

I have to say that there has been little exciting cooking in the apartment. With the exception of a delicious apple cake that I made from a New York Times recipe that my mother recommended to me.

Mostly I've been trying to cook chicken such that it doesn't taste like chicken...because chicken is boring. My most recent exploits involved lots of paprika and cream! Regarding chicken though it's rather sad to me that Thanksgiving is all about Turkey...'cause it's just like chicken.

Actually Thanksgiving is all about stuffing...mmm delicious sausage stuffing! I'm going to try to remember to bring my camera home so we can have some cooking at the K-R abode photos!

That is all.

Cookies and Craftiness

2007-11-08T08:49:00.000-08:00

At some point on Sunday, after spending the afternoon playing Spades with my brother Aaron and our sister-in-law Beth, I felt markedly crafty. And by crafty I mean "feeling the need to make something" not "inspired to make mischief." So Beth and I made cookies! We made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with no raisins much to my father's chagrin. We both agreed that one or the other was really the way to go with oatmeal cookies and acted on the 'chef's prerogative.''

Another day, Dad. Another day.

The cookies turned out a little flatter than they normally do, but the chewiness that resulted was actually very tasty. I think Beth and I make a fine team in the kitchen and it was great to have someone to share the heavy lifting with--what with both of us having such wimpy arms it can be difficult stirring in that last cup of oatmeal!

I can do most anything....

2007-11-04T19:23:00.000-08:00

can you bake a pie? no...
neither can I.....

Well actually I can, and I think that I've made a really lovely crust...that's what it's all about yes? making the perfect flaky but not crumbly crust, that is heaven help us, not tough.

Now I haven't gotten the chance to eat the pie yet but I have eaten about half of the goodie and it seems that this might be the best pie crust that I've ever made.

I made it outside, on the porch, such that it would stay colder, yes I know, clever!

also as a side note: trader joe's Gorgonzola walnut tortellini are quite tasty!

This just in...

2007-10-28T21:05:00.001-07:00

Lightning strikes twice in one day! Inspiration lightning of course. While this meal wasn't particularly complicated or unique, it did taste absolutely delicious and turned yucky chicken (and by that I mean boring, not rancid) into a delectable treat.

Yellow Curry

We put apples and raisins and other choice vegetables into this Indian style curry. We also used fresh ginger which we picked up in our weekly run to Stanley's. In addition to chicken stock, we also used yoghurt which aptly paired with these spices.

After dinner we made hot chocolate with Ghiradelli's Ground Chocolate and a bit of Orange Essence. Alas, even the sweetness of this dessert could not counter the bitterness of the TV episode we watched in which everyone seemed to be failing at life.

Thankfully, we are doing well by ourselves--much better than those folks. Emily's dad concurs and even went so far as to call us "Young Urban Sophisticates." We thought that was pretty funny.

On Lunch: A Stroke of Brilliance

2007-10-28T20:13:00.000-07:00

Today Emily had a stroke of brilliance. After a week of very sad food (except for Thursday's tasty asparagus-leek soup) she had plenty of food mojo saved up and it resulted in this meal of perfection:

Baked Apples with Brie and Honey

Indeed. It was fantastic. We used the honey Emily brought back from Pickford, Michigan after spending a week with her family in the UP. It is particularly floral and we reserve it for occasions such as these since it has no business being eaten on our cheerios. (Side note--we might have a bit of a problem with honey...we have three different types currently each of which is reserved for specific purposes.)

Emily also baked some crispy biscuits to eat this delicious spread on. They ended up a little flatter than expected, but it actually turned out for the better in my opinion. They stood up to the sweetness of the apples which in turn offset the richness of the brie. The texture was perfect. Each of the layers melded into the next--soft with crisp, salty with sweet.

It was an excellent lunch.

And we ate it all.

Breakfast is great!

2007-10-21T20:26:00.001-07:00

it's yummy in my tummy I can't wait!
There's cereal, French toast, eggs and ham,
pancakes and syrup, bagels and jam,
I wish it were breakfast so I could see,
breakfast for me!

So after a late night watching too much light makes the baby go blind I had a whole cohort of peoples at the house, so of course breakfast abounded! I will admit, it was slightly less impressive than when Mia and I rolled out of bed ten minutes before Ted arrived to make pancakes, banana muffins, bacon and poached eggs, but it was epic in an appropriately Embly style.
You may not know this but I'm a breakfast fiend!
And yes I know how to do it best so back the heck off!
I mean....if I'm in my home I prefer to have breakfast in the manner that I choose....any breakfast is of course delightfully welcome, honestly you're talking to a girl who eats cheerios most mornings.

Anyhow we had cinnamon buns that we bought and Alex prepared

cornbread,

and eggs and bacon...this is Alex's plate!

Hooray breakfast...also Ross loves cornbread!

Emily Cooks Stir Fry?

2007-10-15T21:47:00.000-07:00

"Oh my goodness gracious what happened to my stir fry?" Embly asked irritably of her bean sprouts.

"It wasn't us!" they clamored.

Yes it was. The stir fry went from delicious to funky and it was all your fault bean sprouts. All your fault.

But we have moved on.

Emily also made banana muffin-cookies with our last remaining banana which had begun to brown. She didn't necessarily intend for them to be muffiny, but they are and they are delicious. And fluffy.

We will give some of the cookies to Ross who demanded them and Shane'sie who deserves them.

A Very Cozy Kitchen

2007-10-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

Last night before we went to bed, Emily commented that she loves our apartment. It really has been the perfect place for us.

In particular, our kitchen has turned out much better than expected. My parents gave us a free standing counter top which has made the space much easier to use than when we first moved in and with a few finishing touches we made it quite cozy. We put a chair that my brother painted in the kitchen so people can visit with us when we cook and there is an absolutely thriving basil plant on one of the window sills.

This morning I saw a pair of cardinals eating from our bird feeder through the kitchen window so I stopped washing dishes for a bit to just sit and listen to them chit chat with each other.

I'm glad to finally have the comfort and familiarity of my very own kitchen.

Midnight French Toast and Fried Apples

2007-10-05T10:15:00.000-07:00

The title says it all really. Emily and I had a late start on dinner, but it turned out delicious. We had French Toast with fried apples and home-made whipped cream. It was beautiful and quite tasty, but you can really only eat a little bit of something so sweet and rich. The best part is, the meal was completely inspired by our keen sense of thrift. Our apples had begun to brown and their texture was a bit off. Rather than throwing them away we turned them into exactly the meal we were in the mood for.

Right now I'm in the process of making fried rice to have in the refrigerator for later. It's always good for me to have food on hand because, as much as I enjoyed last night's dinner, it certainly doesn't factor in well with my eating healthy plan. If I have food prepared, I can always grab it in a moment of hunger rather than eating unhealthy, albeit delicious, snacks.

Today Was a Sad Food Day

2007-10-03T21:15:00.000-07:00

Not sure what happened to all of that marvelous food we've been eating. Today's culinary rating was maybe a 4 out of 10 if I'm generous. I had a banana for breakfast and cheerios and applesauce for lunch. Dinner was certainly tastier since my mom took me out to the Beer Bistro. I had a chopped salad, which was exactly what I was in the mood for, but did not leave me satisfied for long. Alas, I have nothing wonderful to write about.

Emily had a bowl of cheerios with honey for breakfast, a tasty falafel sandwich from the Nile and a fizzy root beer. She had a $1 chocolate milkshake snack from the C-shop on campus and for dinner a microwaveable bowl o' dinner which turns out involved shrimp. Yuck. currently she is eating applesauce with cinnamon (and cloves!).

Didn't you want to know all of that? We felt guilty for not posting and figured we should develop good habits even if we don't have exciting foods to talk about. Perhaps tomorrow Emily will post on one of the many delicious meals we've had recently, if only to remind us that we are capable of such things.

Stanley's Fruits and Vegetables

2007-09-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

"Stanley, we love your fruits and vegetables!" or says the mural that so happily greets you at S tanley's Fruits and Vegetables--the best most wonderful loving yummy place in the world...or at least on the west side of Chicago.

Mrs. Shin, the mother of the little girl I tutor, took it upon herself to make sure that Emily and I knew where to shop for our produce. She shuttled me off to Stanley's and I've never looked back. Now Emily and I make a weekly trip on the #9 bus and come back with bags full of groceries and minds full of ideas for delicious recipes to attempt in the week to come.

We've decided that we'd like to share our food adventures with you, since so far they have been so delicious and beautiful. We hope to post pictures as well as verbally enticing descriptions of our concoctions. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do and are inspired by our vivacious kitchen exploits.