this is not a food blog

of course, you’d make this meal well-balanced with a salad… 

i get that a lot. mac and chz night became mac and chz with a side of spinach salad, because why would anyone make a meal out of just mac and cheese? oh wait, … i guess people who might also eat it out of a box. and others.

mac and chz: i call it mac & chz because i made the cheese sauce with a bechamel blend of 1/3 less fat Philly brand cream cheese (on sale! next to the velveeta… eek!) and shredded sharp orange cheddar. so not “real” cheese. whole grain penne topped with olive oil rubbed bread crumbs, dried thyme and slices of tomato and finished off in the oven

spinach salad: torn adult spinach, chopped red onion, roasted & salted pepita, gorgonzola cheese crumbles, dried cranberries. dressing was a shaken blend of balsamic vinegar, locally farmed honey, minced garlic and olive oil

finish with a digestive game of Uno =)

my eggplant parm

ummm, yah. i salt rinse, i egg wash, i bread crumb, i pan fry, i layer/sauce/cheese, and i bake. it is kind of a process, but then you have meals for a week! or i did

my baba ganouj

for my first go, i think that my baba ganouj was okay. i put too much garlic in it, and it was raw so it stuck to our palettes a little too much for my liking (i think i will remedy it by roasting the garlic first, next time). i broiled two eggplants (forked all around first!) for about 20 minutes until the outside was charred and the middle was soft. i scooped the pulp out and i actually put it in a container and waited a few days bc i did not have pita. so eggplant pulp, couple cloves of garlic, two spoons tahini, and juice of 1.5 lemons in the food processor. a drizzle of olive oil, chopped parsley and a sprinkle of paprika

it will be better next time

i do not mean to alarm you with this drastic change… i was trying to figure out how to read my “notes” and thought it was the theme… it was not, but now it has changed.

hi guys,

after a sleepfest with the help of store brand nyquil (fine, CVS. i get it now. i get why you asked me for my birthdate. still, let us not confuse my feverish delirium with evidence of guilt & suspicion), i feel better! …ish. the back of my head still throbs, and i still have a spot in my left eye through which i cannot see…

anyway, i bought a chicken last tuesday from the grocery store. a conveniently pre-made rotisserie chicken of unknown origin (sorry, animals =/).

and with that i have eaten chicken salad (chicken breast sliced, torn adult spinach, orange bell peppers sliced, roasted pumpkin seeds, sliced onion, shredded cheese in a sriracha-mayo-sesame oil dressing) as per the half-eaten one below.

i have also chickenified my corn chowder (post to come).

tonight, i will probably make a grilled cheese with said-chicken, sandwiched between melty gooey cheddar.

and later on, i will make another taco salad (o? did i not post my taco salad? oops… so much backlog!) 

…and it will be delicious! or maybe a quesadilla! or chicken nachos! the possibilities are endless.

after all that is said and done, i will boil the carcass into chicken soup!

dear mr. chicken, while you may have led a terribly cramped life, you will not have died in vain!

… i am useless.

generally, i am very good at taking care of other people. my attention-to-detail sparks rampantly as i recall all the little things that a person has mentioned to love or hate. and i make a pretty mean chicken soup

but when i feel sick, i become whiny and silly. instead of the aforementioned delicious chicken soup, i open a bag of cheddar puffs and lay like a lump in bed

i need to go to clinic! and not the health kind… people are waiting for my services, and instead i frown at the dreary weather outside, whimper at my brutal and unceasing headache, and hope it is a 12-hour thing, because otherwise, my immune system is wasting my time…