Friday Night Dinner

Dessert:Strawberry Cream Brownie
Dinner: Crispy Cauliflower
Baked Chicken

Zeresht Polow

Dad made dinner tonight. It was very pretty, but definatly enough for more than three people.
The chicken was cooked slowly in white wine and then the rice was infused with saffron.--Dad said something like that and wanted me to write it, I just have a bad memory.

Whole-Wheat Apple Waffles

After wandering around Bloomingdale's, I was inspired by the waffle irons.
So I decided to dig mine out, that I don't think I've ever used (Dad has, but he gave it to me for Christmas one year, I think).

Dad didn't really like them, since they were dense, but Mom thought they were nice.

Friday Night Adventures In Brownies & Saturday Platings of Leftovers

Breakfast looked pretty this morning (but the Apple Cinnamon loaf Dad bought on Thursday night).


I made brownies last night. And no, I did not burn them. They're just really black. I actually think they're probably a bit undercooked, but there aren't eggs in them, so I'm pretty sure it won't hurt anyone, and I only saved about seven. The rest I froze, and had half of one from the freezer and they're yummier that way.
Nobody but me seems to like them so far. Mom didn't try one, Keri thinks they're too sweet, Dad said they were too black (I don't know if he tasted one or not), and actually, I think they're too moist.

Sweet Breakfast Trio

This was breakfast today. It consisted of three things:

an apricot cottage cheese waffle

a triple berry-nut omelet

a strawberry banana waffle

The apricot cottage cheese waffle was an Eggo waffle topped with apricot jam, cottage cheese, nutmeg, and cinnamon that was then put under the broiler for three minutes.
The berry-nut omelet had two eggs and an egg white, cinnamon, dried cranberries, dried cherries, dried blueberries, and walnuts.
The strawberry banana waffle was an Eggo waffle topped with a banana and two frozen strawberries and warmed up a bit in the oven.

I wasn't sure how the omelet would turn out, but it was good.

Vegetables for breakfast!

You start with this:

Saute/steam them.
Add three eggs and some milk and put in the oven at 400 degrees for 7 minutes or so.
And breakfast becomes this:

Flambe!

Dessert Dad made last night:

And the adventure continues...

Sunday night, I made a side dish that became Mom and mine's dinner on Tuesday night (a fresh batch) with leftover chicken added to it to make a fusion stir-fry like thing... only it was cauliflower, olives, and capers with chicken, so I wouldn't call that too Asian. More like a Mediterranean dish. Mom made chicken and a salad... both with recipes from an Everyday Food magazine I picked up as we were checking out at the grocery store... we just happened to have what we needed for both the dishes (whole chicken and celery salad.

Monday night was Dad's night to cook. It of course resulted in delicious food, improvised from what we had. Much different from me.

Last night was a pasta dish. Broccoli and Mushrooms. It had a cream, so I guess you could say it sort of had a cream sauce.. I'm not sure. But that made it different from stuff I usually make, too.

And tonight it Spicy Tofu Burritos. I haven't eaten one yet, because I made chips out of the tortillas on accident, but I know they're spicy.
I burnt my nose in the shower from the jalepeno residue on my hands.
And I can smell it.

Banana Nut Muffins

I just made banana nut muffins out of two ripe bananas we had. I used a recipe I modified from Bon Appetit.
It took me a while, and I toasted the nuts and forgot to put them into the batter until I'd scooped three muffins, and I saved too much nuts for the tops, so they're very nutty on top.

Makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

two ripe bananas, or around 1 cup mashed

1/2 cup 1% milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 stick unsalted butter

1/2 cup normal sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup pecan or walnut chips toasted

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin cups with papers. Toast nuts in oven for 2-5 minutes, or until toasted.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
In a small bowl, mix mashed bananas, milk, and vanilla.

Beat butter in a large bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat banana mizture and flour mixture alternately into butter mixture in a couple of separate additions. Stir in most of toasted nuts and with a scoop, scoop into muffin pan. Top with remaining nuts.

Bake muffins until tester inserted into a muffin comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Happy Thanksgiving

The table right before dinner. There was fennel-cranberry-raisin cornbread, lmg's green bean casserole, Dad's gravy, Uncle Larry's asparagus that Mom steamed, cranberry orange relish, Mom's turkey stuffed with onions and oranges, portabella and escarole dressing, and my mashed maple sweet potatoes.

It was all very yummy. Though dessert wasn't nearly as yummy since it was store bought, but Uncle Larry was up to making it, so that's okay because I wouldn't have wanted him to stress himself off or hurt himself trying to.