Arancini

Arancini balls with Fontina cheese (Trader Joe's), swisschard with Parmesan cheese, and a glass of blueberry wine from my dearest Nana makes for a tasty bit.

Mediterranean Pizza

I had a lovely, lovely, Christmas. This is the tail end of a weekend of singing, family, scrumptious treats galore, too much egg-nog-and-rum, and a hovering spirit of goodwill.

Mmmm.

(On the pizza: swisschard, kalamata olives, feta cheese, kimchi)

Also I accidentally stole all of Ma'ams precious stinky-fish salad (and a fried fish ball) for tomorrow's lunch, and learned too late she meant to gift it away. Truly I felt bad, but my mouth tomorrow will likely get over it...

<3

Martinis and Eggs

I love a good olive-laden gin martini, and order them nearly every time we eat out. Tonight, though, I bought some extra-dry vermouth, which means I can make my own. A dangerous thought, to be sure! But tonight I made a mini one; perhaps 1/3 the volume of a bar serving. It was oh-so cute.

And after unsuccessfully attempting to coerce Bean's elderly Father to take us to dinner, we whipped up a delightfully refreshing meal of rice, broccoli and asparagus, topped with an over-easy egg expertly cooked by Bean. I added mushrooms and kimchi. Mmmm.

Why was this so delicious?!

Simon was perhaps too excited about the building possibilities:

Bean Makes Pasta (I Remain Aloof)

Pomegranate

People claim they're not worth the effort to eat! But Ma'aam brought one home, and it didn't seem like too much trouble (truly).

So tart!

Michael's Market

A place I frequent on workdays when I have forgotten to pack lunch. They have adorable soup packaging, some tasty sandwiches, and beautiful chocolate cake...

Cooking for Bean, for real

With the anticipation that last night's dinner-independence brought on, I decided to try my luck with a complete take-over of pizza preparations. The dough, which I have little experience with, was:

1/2 package rapid-rise yeastdissolved in

3/4 c. water

Bean started this when he got home from work (before me), which is the only addition he made to the meal.

When this had activated, I added:

3/4 c. bread flour

3/4 c. white flour

sprinkle cornmeal

sprinkle salt

sprinkle sugar

~ 2 tsp garlic spice mix

2 spanish olives, chopped

a bunch of olive oil

My measurements are lackadaisical, as always (I do apologize). We watched Fawlty Towers and then I added to the top more olives, a tiny mushroom, some basil leaves, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and lastly some freshly-grated Parmesan.

It was so beautiful before it went in; perfectly square and dotted with color.

But my inadequacies with the pizza peel caused the whole thing to tip onto the stone, causing a meltage breakdown in the oven. That's how the finished product ended up more like this:

Cooking for Bean

Ma'am has been gone for a week, and the refrigerator has been slowly emptying itself out as Nick, Bean, Morgue and I avail itself of its contents. Today, Bean had to pick up Ma'am at the airport. His request that I make dinner for us both, to consume when they returned, pleased me to no end; for once I'd be able to cook for him, instead of the other way around. Whenever we make pizza, it's him that mixes up the dough, and most other meals are an experiment by myself. So!

I threw olive oil in a pan, and added:

fresh basil

chopped garlic

scallions

carrots

celery

and let it heat up while I cut up the last worthy meal item left since Ma'am departed: a single breast of chicken.

And it was at this point that they got home from the airport. TOO EARLY! As disappointed as I was in not blowing away the recipients, it was nice to have Ma'am (and Bean) back, so we could spend the rest of the meal preparation in chatty co-existence.

Broccoli was added for Bean; cherry tomatoes and mushrooms (my undying love) for me.

At least he seemed to enjoy it ever-so-slightly...

Ice Cream Sandwiches

Throughout the day, the urge to bake (especially for others) had cropped up to an unhealthy degree. At around 6 PM I began...and halfway through, lost steam entirely. I normally relish pootling about by my lonesome in the kitchen, but today was the end of an exhausting weekend, and it felt like midnight before it had even arrived at dinner time (needless to say, dinner was cookies).

In a bowl, mix:

close to 4 cups flour

~ 2 tsp baking soda

~ 1 tsp salt

In separate bowl, cream:

1 1/2 c. butter, softened

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. white sugar

3 eggs

some vanilla extract

some chocolate extract

Add the flour mix to this. Then add, chopped:

2 full Lindt 90% dark chocolate bars

At the request of many recipes, I let the eggs come to room temperature beforehand, but the difference this might have made was impossible to determine, as so many other liberties were taken with measurements.

Halfway through I had to whisk to the store, under Paige's direction. Mulled wine caused mulled confusion in the making of the batter, and we were out of butter. In the end, they turned out okay -- nothing special as cookies go.

The goal, though, was to make ice cream sandwiches. Earlier today Bean and I had bought a quart of maple walnut from our beloved Jake's in Nashua. The hot cookie + cold ice cream caused some meltage, but stowing them back in the freezer remedied this problem in no time at all.

Cherry Tomatoes

I only posted this because tomatoes, being my favorite fruit, give way to cherries; a tiny, bite-sized portion of the wondrous fruit that begs to be included in work lunches and other dishes. We've been eating out too much, so tonight we cooked for six people instead of two.

We began, unknowingly, with:

olive oil

chopped scallions

chopped onions

fresh basil :D

salt & pepper?

Bean assembled these while I cleaned the kitchen.

And then we separated into two pans, since Bean abhors mushroom and I cannot stand peppers. I added:

mushroom

broccoli

and somehow, the most beautiful vegetable of all; cherry tomatoes. I was surprised to find they were still sweet at this time of year...

Cook or a minimal amount of time (I often neglect the poor dish) and consume!

Beet Noodles

We had to go to pottery a mere few minutes after I returned 'home' from work, so I made a package of udon noodles from the Asian market.

I added beet chunks to the boiling water (resulting in this unappealing pink-ination), but did not have time to finish before we had to whisk out the door.