Omelette

I had some heirloom tomatoes and an avocado that needed to be used up fast. Sounds like a yummy omelet to me!

I was really hungry, so I used 3 eggs in this omelet. This was so fresh and vibrant that I had to share it, no matter how simple it is!

I smothered the omelet in salsa, and then had an amazing lunch.

Chicken Parmesan

I am thrilled to finally own a meat tenderizer! I'm ready to pound some chicken for the first time to make Chicken Parmesan.

I pounded the chicken breasts inside ziplock bags (where they had defrosted). The breast on the left has been pounded about 1/4 inch thin, the breast on the right is unaltered.

I pan fried the chicken breasts for ~5 minutes on each side.

Our pans are VERY non-stick, so we only needed the tiniest amount of oil.

Our griddle pan hadn't arrived in the mail yet, so I had to use two different pans to cook dinner. Thank goodness these pans are dishwasher safe!

What Italian meal would be complete without garlic bread? I had this in the oven to crisp as the chicken was cooking on the stovetop.

After I put the mozarella cheese on top, I stuck the pans directly in the oven at 300 degrees for a min so the cheese would melt.

This meal was so fast and easy to prepare. I cannot see myself ever using pre-breaded chicken again!

"Black Cat" Cookies 2

I still had a lot of baking coco and flour around, so I decided to remake the chocolate cookies I made last Halloween.

My notes from the first time I made this dish.

I made a few adjustments to the recipes. I used 1 cup 50% splendor + 1 cup sugar, and substituted 1 cup Crisco for the cup of butter.

The dry ingredients, unmixed and mixed.

The dough turned out super crumbly. I wondered if I added 4 cups of flour instead of 3... but the cookies came out so well in the end that I don't think it was a problem if I did.

The dough.

The balls of dough - before pressing

The balls of dough - after pressing with a glass dipped in sugar.

Sushi Sushi!

When cleaning out my pantry before the move, I came across sushi rice and seaweed. Time for a sushi night!

Standard sushi ingredients (left) and my method of making spicy mayo (right)

I would love to have made some tempura or picked up some fresh fish to add into these rolls, but since I am trying to save money, I figured it was better to go with a simpler option - California rolls with cucumber, imitation crab and avocado.

Simple ingredients for a spicy California roll.

I am not a huge wasabi fan, but I like a little bit of spice.

The mat really makes the difference when rolling up the sushi.

Using a sharp knife makes all the difference when slicing the rolls.

New Grill Pan

At the beginning of July, we moved into our new Evanston, IL home. You forget how hard it is to cook with an incomplete kitchen, so we worked hard to get it set up as soon as possible.

One of the first things we unpacked was a grill pan we received as a wedding gift. We picked up some JennieO turkey sausages, which they rarely had in Boston but I ate frequently as a kid. This made the first use of a wedding gift even more exciting!

Cooking on a grill pan takes a lot longer than cooking on a normal frying pan. I suppose it's slower than a grill because it isn't covered.

It was hard to flip the sausages... they're slippery little suckers! The tongs that were still packed in a box would have helped a lot with this meal. Nevertheless, this was an easy meal and I was thrilled to be cooking again! Stay tuned for a lot more discussion of brand new kitchen gadgets.

Look at those grill marks!

Chicken Soup with Rice

This isn't your grandma's chicken and rice soup. Why? I bet your grandma's soup is more wholesome and uses more fresh ingredients. (And maybe it has some real CHICKEN in it!)

Ingredients

• 7 cups of water
• 8 bullion cubes
• chopped onions
• 1 and a half cups of uncooked rice
• Frozen vegetable medly
  
• 2-3 whole eggs (beaten)
  

Instructions

• Cook seven Min or until rice is cooked.
  
• Add frozen veggies and bring to a boil
• Beat 2-3 eggs, drop into the boiling soup, stirring as you pour the eggs in (this will help break up the egg pieces.)
  
• Bring back to a boil. Cool and serve.

What I based the soup on. I had plenty of rice, what could I add to it?

A nice thing about this soup is that you don't have to start with frozen and dry ingredients. You can use canned chicken soup, old hard leftover rice and fresh veggies and get a similar result.

The only issue I had with this dish is that since I cooked the rice directly in the broth, the rice soaked up most of the liquid. Now, this was still delicious (and the rice texture wasn't so mushy), but if you want more of a soup consistency I would cook the rice separately and then add it at the end. I frequently add bullion cubes to my rice anyway, so then you wouldn't have to worry about diluting the flavor.

This is a hearty meal that is easy to whip up when you haven't stocked up on groceries for a while.

Chocolate Mice

My Sister-in-Law is a great cook, but she is famous for her chocolate mice. The first few Christmases that I spent with my Husband's family included assembly lines where we would create armies of these mice. Somehow, with my SIL in charge, all of the mice looked perfect... but the year that she couldn't make it to Christmas... We ended up having some mutations occur. Can you find the mice that are, well, less that perfect?

Maraschino cherries dipped in chocolate with a Hershey kiss head, almond sliver ears and icing eyes.