Monday, February 23, 2009

Every day feels like Sunday, baby.

I wish.

For the most part, my Sundays are lazy and uneventful. I get to sleep in and not feel bad about it, lounge around and watch the junk-o-vision and have a beer at noon if I want (which I normally do.)

Last Sunday was no exception. Well, we cleaned. And put up a new shelf that was sorely needed in my tiny kitchen. Can I even call it a kitchen? It's more like a storage closet that happens to have a stove, fridge and sink in it. Anyways, it looks warmer. I think I raised the value of our place by 200%.

When I was thinking about dinner for Sunday, I decided to visit a dish that was my real first dinner - a pasta I fell in love with at the Doug Fir a long time ago. You can also find it at any McMenamins. Sometimes it's called the high pasta, sometimes the Hawthorne pasta. Whatever you call it, it's quick and easy. I'm pretty sure I made it for Jeff in our first weeks of dating and he loved it. Well, actually the first thing I made for him that he loved was pesto and for whatever reason, that was a 2 day, 2 person affair. One to run the blender, the other (me) to buy the ingredients and oversee the blender running. I was so young.

I really don't think that one needs a recipe - it's pasta (I use thin spaghetti, but you can go crazy and use macaroni), steamed spinach, halved grape tomatoes and pine nuts sauteed in olive oil and garlic. I went a little off the beaten path and threw in some shallot. We had some italian marinated tofu and red wine with, and it was probably the nicest dinner we've had in awhile. We were able to sit down and relax and enjoy it rather than rush off and do other things. I don't even think we had the tv on. Win.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Oh crepe.

I've noticed as I've started to branch out in my cooking that I tend to get frustrated if something doesn't work out. These crepes were the latest irritation. I got the recipe from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. In the recipe, you're instructed to use a non non-stick pan. Well, I don't have one. All of my pans, which are a combination of wedding gifts and hand-me-downs from the single life, are non-stick. I did, however, have a really old pan that had to have all the non-stick worn off by now. It just had to. The pan has got to be older than me.

Obviously, that didn't work. The first two crepes were crap and I managed to get two decent ones out before I threw the rest of the batter out (which wasn't very much). I made up some Celestial Cream from the same book (without the blender, which was dirty), threw in some blueberries, apples and homefries and I was done. The picture actually makes it look better than how I felt about it. Jeff loved it but my night was ruined.

I need to invest in a good pan.


On a different note, Expedia (well, I guess the airlines) keep cancelling our flights home from Europe. I think someone is telling us to stay there. I'm up for that adventure.