The test of patience

Ahh okay I'm getting lazy with posting and cooking. Last night I just gave up all together and went to a free-food event for dinner. Tonight we're getting together to make sushi.... so excited! 

I think the reason I got lazy is because of the meal I made two nights ago - the ribs that took FOREVER. To be fair though, I woke up at 7 (pm) and still decided it was a good idea to make ribs, and decided to skip the boiling step (which my mom does, but people say makes the ribs less tasty?). I decided to broil them instead, as recommended by some rib site, which took... a little longer than I expected. I added potatoes, and a bunch of other stuff, and did half of them in a premade bbq sauce and half in one that I tried to make from ketchup, honey and mustard (kind of the only ingredients I had...). I don't think it mattered though, because everything kind of mixed together in the water/sauce. 

Anyway, they were pretty good/edible (that's really all I ask for), but unfortunately I didn't eat them til 11 when I was bordering on hunger insanity. But I loooooooove ribs so it was still worth it =). So here's my final product...check out how much the wheatgrass thing has grown!! And as usual, here's what I put on the ribs. 

Ribs (duh) 

Water/chicken broth (to broil)

Garlic (still stolen)

Onion 

Potatoes (red and white, 4 weeks old and still good somehow...)

Salt, pepper, spices

Legitimately made prepackaged BBQ sauce

My shot-in-the-dark BBQ sauce of ketchup, mustard and honey

Pancakes by design and last minute salmon pasta

This actually happened yesterday, but there was too much to post in one. So yesterday my roommate and I decided to make pancakes for breakfast! We had no chocolate chips, so we separated some of the batter, added cocoa powder, and made designs! We're not cakemasters (name of TLC show anyone?) or anything, but we tried. We'll perfect it!

Banana swirl! 

                                          

 

Bullseye/concentric circles 

Square checkered pancake 

(we'll work on this one...)

and.. 

Smiley!

When dinnertime rolled around, I frustratingly had to throw out Thursday's congee because it had a weird smell, possibly from the bok choy sitting in it too long. I also threw out fried tofu and this vegetable whose English name I don't know that I bought in August. Quick solution when there are no vegetables left? Pasta! 

So here's my attempt at salmon pasta. 

Penne (the box tells me it's smart) 

Salmon defrosted and baked 

Alfredo sauce (also stolen from roommate) 

Dill chip dip (really need to get some dill)

Milk (should have added more, sauce was kind of thick)

Frozen vegetables

This was somehow even better when I reheated it for lunch today =)

Homecoming weekend splurge

Somehow almost as soon as Friday afternoon rolls around, I feel the need for junk food. So a few of us head out to Boston Pizza. (Try the spicy potato/fry appetizer thing! The name escapes me.) I didn't take any pictures of food, so here's a glimpse of the drink my roommate had, vanilla something (I'm really bad with the names today..) but I know it was also good! 

Saturday was all homecoming celebrations. First chocolate chip pancakes and porch climbers (beer, vodka, lemonade I think?? = gets you drunk way faster than you think it does). Then the best chicken fingers and sweet potato fries ever. And at the end of the night, the loaded perogies and fries here. So... goodbye progress from exercise =( But man was it a good weekend.

Congee for the soul with a cold

Sickness makes me productive again! I ate the rest of the chicken noodle soup for lunch today so I was dinner-less again, and decided to go Asian style. I don't know if I matched up to my mom's, or even Congee Queen's standards, but I gave it a try. Again, online search gave me a few ideas, and this is pretty straight forward except for how I tried frying the garlic and drumsticks before adding the broth. Otherwise I pretty much just threw in the following and waited: 

Garlic (borrowed, from roommate again)

Drumsticks (leftover from last night) 

Water (9 ish cups, but I kept having to add more)

Rice (3/4 of a cup)

Chicken broth (mmm)

Fish sauce (cuz I'm Viet like that)

Bok choy (finally finished it!!)

Coriander (garnish)

Oh, I also took the drumsticks out maybe 30 mins in when they were cooked, cut the meat off and shredded it and threw the bones back into the pot. I don't actually know how to shred it so I just cut it into little pieces, and then I put them back in the congee after it was all done. And voila! My final creation...

Also I should mention the googly eyed thing is a plant my roommate and I got for free at a recruitment tour yesterday. Apparently it's wheatgrass and grows in this squishy silicone (might not be silicone) thing with fluorescent light! I always wanted to grow stuff so I'm really excited to see how it turns out!!

Chicken soup for the soul with a cold

Okay so this is my first post on my first blog, so forgive me for being wordy/taking more than my share of your internet reading time. So why am I writing a blog now? Well I've just recently started living "on my own" as much as I ever have before and basically I need to learn to cook/fend for myself. I should probably take the opportunity to do other healthy things too (sleep regularly, exercise regularly, etc) and general good things (read the news, reinvent old clothes instead of shopping, finish books I read, etc). And hopefully this blog will help me keep track of all these things! (Or lack thereof, depends on how you see the glass).

Right now, it looks like I'm not doing too well with the healthy thing... considering that I've gotten two colds in the last week ish. But then again, my illness inspired me to make my own chicken noodle soup (after I got tired of eating the canned ones) and I also decided to make them with the drumsticks I defrosted and didn't cook yet (planning meals is not my forte). 

Quick online search of "chicken drumstick soup" gave me an article where you fry the drumsticks with onions first, so that's what I did (and it worked ok!). I also threw in bok choy that's going to go bad soon (will be a recurring theme in my cooking), a carrot I stole from my roommate, chicken broth, water, salt (cuz I had too much water), pepper and garlic spices. I'm happy to say that it was edible and my throat was soothed! Looks like the bowl of soup is half full today.