Fried Zucchini

Lately I have been obsessed with making fried zucchini. I made some soup and instead of buying bread to have along side it, I decided to get some zucchini to fry up. It's really simple and super delish! I try to slice the zucchini so they are all the same thickness, dip them into an egg mixture (egg, mustard, and a splash of water), and then into Italian style bread crumbs. I like to fry them in EVOO over medium heat until both sides are a nice light brown color. Don't cook them too long or them will get super soggy. This sometimes happens when you cook them on low heat instead of medium. Don't cook them too long or the crumbs will burn. The true secret to the yumminess of the zucchini is the mustard in the egg mixture. Now I've never liked mustard before but yet I love using it when I'm breading and frying things. It doesn't really taste like mustard, just gives it a little extra zing!

Veggie Lasagna

Coming from a half italian family, I love pasta. I haven't gotten the chance to learn how to make any homemade macaroni from my grandmother yet, but I still like to mingle around with boxed macaroni and different concoctions to make. For Valentine's Day I planned an evening with some girlfriends and decided to cook some dinner. This is the perfect opportunity to cook something different and maybe more unique cause we have each other to help out. I asked if we could do a lasagna and between all of us we had pretty much all the ingredients we needed. This was my first time making lasagna and I was very excited. My grandmother makes a plane cheese lasagna which is amazing. I am a meat eater but for some reason do not prefer to eat meat in my lasagna so we chose to try a veggie lasagna with roasted veggies. Normally you would select a pan, 9x9 or 9x13, and then boil the amount of noodles needed. We however, had no boil noodles so we just selected a pan and moved on to the next step. We chose our veggies, cut them up, salted, peppered and oiled them and broiled them. In the mean time we combined a large tub of ricotta cheese, 1lb mozzarella cheese, and 2 eggs until smooth. Once the veggies were done we just had to assemble: noodles, sauce, veggies, cheese. End with noodles and sauce on top. For the sauce we just used a can of garlic and basil. We then baked it at 350 for about 40 min. Served with a caesar salad, garlic bread, and wine and it was a great dinner!

Sushi

I have only tried sushi a few times before and never really had any luck with it. It just wasn't my thing. But I always wanted to like it. I like eating various foods from different nationalities. So far though, my attempts at sushi have been with prepackaged stuff which is never any good. Recently I tried it again though. Still prepackaged, but I realized it wasn't the taste of raw fish that turned me off, it was the seaweed that it is wrapped in that bothers me. We then ventured out to a good sushi restaurant in Seattle, next to the water, fresh fish, made right there as you order. It was suggested to me by some friends that I try sushi with soy paper instead of seaweed if they offer it. That then should be more appealing to my palate. The restaurant was able to swap the paper for whatever rolls I liked. I got the yummy roll, tempura shrimp, cream cheese, avocado and cucumber I believe. With the soy paper it was amazing. So good. I tried someone else's with soy paper and it was also amazing. I retried one with seaweed again, fresh not prepackaged, and still didn't like it. At least I know what the problem is now. Sushi with soy paper, yum! Soy paper all the way!

Peachy Pork Picante

So I have this pork recipe from a 5 Ingredient Cookbook that I love. Its simple, tasty and only includes 5 ingredients... and rice. My mom got the cookbook one day and I fell instantly in love with it. I wrote down some of my favorite recipes from it to take to college with me. She tried to buy me my own but couldn't find the same one. The current one she got me is just not the same. Anyway, I decided to just wing the pork recipe one night, add some stuff to it. So I browned cubed pork in a skillet with evoo and onions, added some red bell peppers about half way through. Seasoned the mix with taco seasoning, cooked a little, added some salsa and peach preserves. Covered and simmered for a bit, tasted and added some more taco seasoning. Served it over my all time favorite rice. I only got three dinners worth out of it but that's ok, totally worth it.

Thanksgiving Side Dishes

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday for food. I love every bit of it! When I was at home we would have turkey, candied yams, corn, stuffing, cranberry jelly, dinner rolls, applesauce, maybe a salad, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, maybe pumpkin cheesecake too (we like pumpkin in my family!). My other family (being away at school) has introduced me to some new side dishes over the years such as green bean casserole, stuffing I will actually eat, garlic mashed potatoes, corn bread, apple cider, cranberry salad/ ambrosia. At first I was a little afraid , "what no corn? how can there be no corn? And what is green bean casserole, yuck!" But I quickly got over it when i realized how good it was.

For thanksgiving with my school family, we do a potluck dinner. For the second year in a row I hosted it. As per usual, I decided to make the candied yams. Boiled the yams till fork tender and skins are falling off. Pulled the skins off, cut in half, then half again making long skinny pieces. Placed them in a 13x9 inch pan, covered with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon (lots of them!). Baked at 350 until really tender and the butter and brown sugar have made a nice glaze over the top and the taste has set in. I usually make the pumpkin pies as well but I decided this year to make apple pomegranate cider instead. Brought apple juice, pomegranate seeds, cinnamon sticks and whole cloves to a boil. Added a few tsp of butter right before serving. I would recommend not leaving the pomegranate seeds in the mixture while serving. One, some start to float, two, the longer they sit in there the sweeter it gets and you don't want it to get too sweet.

Home Made Chili

Dad's recipe for chili. Not really sure if its his recipe or my grandma's but either way its delish, and simple too! I couldn't wait to make it now that its getting really cold outside, and its another great meal to make for the week. Brown ground beef, add onions and garlic, cook a bit, add tomato sauce and red kidney beans, cook a bit, add green pepper, salt, pepper and chili powder, cook covered on low heat for 1 hour, check and season as needed, cook for 1 more hour. I recommend not eating it the same day that its made, its much better the next day. This time when I made it though I didn't have tomato sauce, I accidently bought tomato paste. My other grandma said it should be fine, she uses paste in hers. However, she uses one small can, I had one regular can. So I'm thinkin, half a can. Then I realize it calls for two cans sauce, so maybe one can paste? I used about the whole can and a can and a half to two cans of water. Its really tomatoee which I like but I think its a little too much so maybe only 3/4th of a can of paste if that's the route you choose. I did taste it while cooking and it seemed fine but it must have changed when it sat in the fridge. Note made. Seven days of chili, here I come, body better get ready for it!

French Fries

MMMMM.... I love french fries! My favorite has to be steak fries, then straight fries like shoestring, plain, sweet potato, waffle, seasoned and curly. I don't know why I don't like curly fries that much, maybe its the type of seasoning? Anyway, I love fries and I love making them in the fall at home in the deep fryer. I haven't tried to make them on my own yet. I realized it was easy because we make them at work for the chimps, we just bake them. The other day I decided to try frying them in some oil like deep frying. They were good, a little greasy though, as to be expected. The next day I decided to try baking them. Much less greasy and still just as yummy. I baked them at 400 with just salt and pepper as seasoning for 30 min give or take, flipping them about half way through. I think I will try using lawrey's seasoning salt next time as seasoning. This could be a bad idea, not I know how to make one of my all time favorite foods, I will never stop making them now. Sooo good!