cook and bake more often, thereby reviving the ancient custom of family mealtimes... and perhaps, one day, even give a dinner party...

I live by myself and I’m a vegetarian.

Not that those things are obstacles in any way.
I just tend to over cook and eat the same leftovers for a week.
And sometimes it’s hard to find good meat-free recipes.

BUT! I was on the prowl tonight and found some promising lasagna, macaroni and cheese, and cookie recipes.

Not very gourmet :] but I’m pretty excited.

with shallots and a marsala reduction. How’s that for fancy sounding? It was ACTUALLY incredibly straight-forward.

Tony, who is not particularly vocal about praising food said “that was really yummy.” YAY!

Roasted cauliflower with garlic and parmesan for the veggie.

Washed down with cheap bubbly, which I popped open as a reward for finally finishing my grad school application! :)

Because I cannot resist a challenge!

So far, I think this might be one of the most rewarding goals I’ve adopted. Thanks for inventing it, my pet! But I haven’t really rolled up my sleeves and ramped up my cooking frequency. maybe it’s time to make a pledge of this sort – that I’ll try not to get take out or eat a frozen dinner for one week.

Tonight, my brother Tony and I had a lovely veggie stirfry in front of the TV. Simple, but very satisfying :)

p.s. Tony made that coffee table. With his own two hands! We’re a great team! He makes the table, and I make the food to put on it!

The good news: Got super motivated and made a pizza from SCRATCH last night!! got the dough stretched out pretty much perfectly – even gave it a few tosses in the air – and had some delicious mozzerella and provolone and parmesan cheese. Gave the sauce some extra oomph with a generous dose of oregano. Topped it with mushrooms and red peppers and red pepper flakes….

The bad news: Got absorbed in 43T while it was in the oven, left it a few minutes too long… Some fresh basil livened up the color a bit and we did still polish off the whole thing :) YUMMY!!!

is a staple of the poor person’s diet. tonight i made dinner for T and H.

fried eggs for T with chocolate chip pancakes (from scratch—with buttermilk!) and red/new potato home fries.

H and I added strawbs to our pancakes and subbed fresh sliced strawbs for the eggs.

I cut my finger slicing the potatoes, but it wasn’t too bad. That’s the hazard of cooking in! T and I have vowed to make food every night this week and not eat out once. we shall see!

well, my intention to make use of the herbs de provence tonight fell through. Tony didn’t bring home the roasting chicken I needed for that recipe. So instead, I made a chicken salad recipe from allrecipes.com with boneless skinless chicken breasts that I grilled on the foreman grill. It turned out MIND-BLOWINGLY good. And I have enough leftovers to make tony sandwiches for lunch this week or a dinner tomorrow night (which he said he’d gladly have a second night in a row).

I used my handy dandy little food processor to make quick work of carrot, celery, apple, and green onions. Tossed in a handful of raisins and about a cup of green grapes sliced in half. I toasted (and slightly burned) a handful of pecans that have been sitting, waiting to be used for something, chopped them up and put them in. And I squirted in a big fat dollop of miracle whip and 1/2 tsp of curry powder.

UNIMAGINABLY GOOD!!!! served it over a bed of baby greens pre-washed from the grocery, with goddess dressing on the side.

HOLY COW! that’s all I can say.

well, saturday I was lazy and gave in to ordering pizza – but last night I made a quick spaghetti and a big salad. It wasn’t really cooking, but I shaved some fresh parmesan on top, took a handful of leaves off the robustly healthy and sorely under-used basil plants, cut them into little ribbons and sprinkled it over the top of the spaghetti. Cracked open a yummy bottle of wine and voila! family meal time!

Tonight I have the ambition of doing something more exotic. I bought a crock of herbs de provence from Williams Sonoma last year and they smell SOOO delicious, but I never use them. I did a search for recipes that use the dried herbs and I think I’m going to try making a roast chicken with them tonight! Exciting…

the brunch party i hosted for my family was today! there were lots of obstacles, mainly the threat of a hurricane and one of my brothers and his wife weren’t able to come. The first part passed through Saturday and today was the most perfect beautiful weather. Sadly, my Josh and Stacie didn’t end up being able to come, but we still had fun.

My niece is a riot. She and the cat met one another with screams. They sneaked up on one another and scared each other—so funny. Plus, Chubbs has never seen a baby or a child before so she was a little freaked at the mini-person. Anna cried murder if the “moew-moew” got near her at first, but by the end of the day, they were old friends. (Still kept their distance, but there were no tears/running and hiding under the couch.)

We originally planned a short afternoon party. Start at one go until three or four, at the latest. No one left until after 6. We were having a good time. Mostly we watched the Ravens game and talked and watched the niece being kooky, but towards the end we went up on the deck and enjoyed the nice weather.

Menu was simple, but everyone seemed to like it. Organic fruit salad of nectarines, strawbs, and white grapes. Made-to-order farm-fresh omlettes—fillings included baby spinach, peppers, tomatoes and extra sharp white cheddar. Organic white and red potato home fries. Also, french toast made with thick slices of baguette. Hubby made an amazing savory tart with cream cheese, gorgonzola, caramelized onions and peppers. That was really the highlight. So yummy. For dessert, my mom made the deep, dark chocolate cake with almond frosting we have for every single fam’s b-day. (It was my dad’s today and lysa and jer’s anniversary is tomorrow.) Hubby brewed coffee; I brewed tea. We also had OJ, white grape juice, milk, iced tea…all kinds!

And best of all, our house was perfectly clean. We finished just in time. There’s still a bit of organizing to do, but a lot of clutter has been taken care of. Now, to keep it up!

Sorry to ramble on and on and on, but I just had such a great day, and I love being hostess. Finally have a nice apartment! It’s teeny but perfect for us. We’re so very happy.

Got up nice and early. Made Tony a ham&cheese sandwich, packed a nectarine and trail mix bar in with his lunch and made him a cup of tea in his to-go mug.

Then he got home SUPER late from work (10pm), by which time I wanted to suggest a frozen dinner or take-out, but he said he didn’t want a frozen dinner and wasn’t that hungry anyway.

However, since he’d only had lunch, I steamed some broccoli made lemon butter sauce to go with it, and grilled a breast of pre-marinaded chicken. Yummy, healthy and REALLY quick and easy! Granted… he didn’t say it was delicious, but he did clean his plate.

Made a simple greek salad two nights ago, and last night pulled out the stops with a delicious vegetarian stir fry – had to use up some of the veggies from making the chicken and brocc stir fry the first night, so I bought some extra carrots and bean sprouts and snow peas and mushrooms and just made a big huge pile of veggies with ginger and garlic and hoisin and soy sauce..

My bro said it was delicious!