Haha! Guess who's been AWOL lately? Yup, me! I'll take another stab at this. I know I sort of just dumped food concoctions here in the past (and I'll probably do it still to some extent), but I'll stick some more meaningful stuff here as well.

I'd like to just outright cross-dump from my blog, but since I'm writing my posts (in MarsEdit) in HTML, I don't think estrip will like that very much when it comes to parsing this text-box out. I should probably adopt estrip more-so for a mobile-blogging platform. Didn't (e:paul) make an Android app or something for this?

Anyhoo, so I'm plotting out weekly agendas for dinner. This has epically failed every time in the past, but I'm trying to go easier on myself this time. I'm also making it a goal to cook out of The Silver Spoon at least once a month. Finally, I'm trying to use this as a way to better learn to scale recipes for one (while I'm still single, as my roommate doesn't partake in my dishes too often). Anyhoo, here's a list of what I'm planning for the week so far:

Tuesday: Crockpot ranch turkey tossed with green peas and rotini, and an Indian sweet dish of sorts (It is some sort of sweet carrot and cashew dish that Siva, our current rotation student in the laboratory, described and encouraged me to try. I am going to tweak the dish a little bit and add in some shredded coconut at the end to add even more deliciousness to it!).
Wednesday: Cream of garbanzo bean au gratin, followed by pork chops with blueberry sauce (this should intrigue (e:janelle) I would imagine, if she sees this).
Thursday: Homemade pizza, predominantly onion, tomato, and mushrooms. Maybe some meat if I have leftovers from either of the above two dinners.
Friday: My awesomesauce spaghetti (hah! punny!), with broiled garlic cheese bread or sage and rosemary bread.

I'll sneak some photos in as they come to be!

If you're bored, you can go read the slew of reverb10 posts I dumped in my blog for the month of December.

xposted over at my personal blog

I get stressed, I cook. Here I am at it again!



I need to find a way to firm up the sausage and make it thinner to wrap around the eggs. It's tasty as it is, but it's a little heavy on the meat. Uffda.

WARNING: Whiny rant ahead

How does one know when to say, "No, that's enough, I've spent enough time doing this?"

I am chronically wondering if I could have tried harder, despite the futile energy it feels it is taking up. I mean really, how much is too much?

I am also driven by the concern that what if it really has not been hard enough? Physical energy can be quatitatively estimated. Emotional energy can only be evaluated qualitatively, and thereby is looked upon by others arbitrarily, and can be judged as such. I know I shouldn't be concerned what people think about that, but hello, that's me!

Worse yet, how do you know when to come back to it with a fresh mind and try again? I can't help but feel that this emotional/mental fatigue is a consequence of taking a break, and then feeling personally guilted into resuming the battle as opposed to really having cleansed the original incident from myself.

Just feeling mentally/emotionally discouraged (although physically I'm quite wiped as well, but that's another story). I'll get over it. However, I really hate feeling torn between what is enough and what isn't.

*Cross-posted over at my normal blog as well.

Can you tell I'm enjoying myself today?


QlinArt
These Vietnamese imperial rolls need a little work. I cheaped out and used typical egg rolls wrappers in lieu of the rice wrappers, which I don't mind too much. However, they definitely need some zing, pizazz, something! I think round 2 will involve introduction of some garlic or oyster sauce, and some chilis.

Between the two dishes today, I have leftovers for virtually the entire week. At least for all my lunches this week!

Man, I'm not even sure if I'll be able to squeeze in some tater tot casserole at this rate before making Scotch eggs this weekend.

GENTLEMEN! BEHOLD!!!

I BRING YOU...



SOUP!!!

Lentil & pasta soup, actually!
(Passions to pastry)
Very delicious. This was my second run making this recipe. I was intending to swap half of the orzo in it for barley, but I realized at the last second that I no longer possessed any barley. However, I've been exchanging the lemon juice (which I do not have presently) for lime juice (which I do), and it has tasted just fine as such.

I've recently gained a striking interest in lentils, having tried them for the first time at Amy's Place a couple weeks ago. I cannot believe I haven't tried them before, for as tasty as they are. Regardless, I've lined up a slew of recipes with which to eat them, so I'm hoping they will all be delicious!

P.S. Here's the reference to my introduction (if you didn't already catch it).