Chomp & Gulp

This is an excellent hint as to my birthday meal:

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Abby and I were planning a fancy Sunday dinner last weekend. Here’s a hint!

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What happens when I am asked to help AB make dinner for the next night (chicken enchiladas! Yay!) when I’m halfawake? Well. Invariably, I mess something up… This time, I dumped enchilada sauce in with the chicken. SO AB, with her usual calm and aplomb, decided to invent lasagnchiladas!… Which have all the same ingredients as enchiladas, just layered instead of rolled. It’s easier for us than regular enchiladas, and seriously tasty.
Lasagnchiladas in the pan
See my deliciously bubbly corner?
Plated, with brussel sprouts and a bit of sour cream!

OK tonight’s dinner was pretty much amazing. It started simply enough:


Followed by just a little bit of pan frying

which probably isn’t the best plan, healthwise, but seriously genius because then we buffalo’d the chikkie bits


Which is genius. It made AB really happy.

Told you! Then we wrapped these little chikkie biteys up in tortillas with some blue cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes from the patio…


Yummie!

I’m sure you’re all jealous, mmm buffalo salads tomorrow.

I know there hasn’t been much activity lately, and I also know I haven’t cooked too much lately. But if there is one thing I do and enjoy, that thing would be eating. This past Sunday, I had been watching Barefoot Contessa making croques monsieur and realized that I had pretty close to the right ingredients. The night before, I had made some fromage fort, and AB had made garlic bread… I’m sure you can see where this is heading.

The first step was carving off a sizeable (sandwich-size) chunk of garlic bread, and applying the fromage fort.

Obviously, for a ham and cheese sandwich, the ham is necessary (I also threw in a layer of swiss, because the ham seemed lonely)

Next, I slapped the sammy together and placed it in a pan. (I smushed it down a little bit to try and get it to stick together)

I baked it for about 10 minutes, sprinkled some mozzarella on the top, and shmelted that slightly.

And then, I ate it.

Had Ann over for dinner Sunday, and Abby made fancy Macaroni and Four Cheeses. I forgot to photograph it Sunday, but Monday night leftovers were delicious.

Abby also made fancy flourless chocolate cake that was great.

And tonight, I made pretzels! They didn’t turn out quite right (I think I need to de-gas them more and also boil them in baking soda water, I was trying for Bayrisch hard pretzels and really they’re like rolls with salt)

This is changing directions, Little Sis is going to join in and we are going to do a bit of food blogging for cooking-lazy kids on a budget. I’m just starting out in life, and Wanna is just moving in to a house for college. This means that we are in a not-so-unique position of cooking for ourselves with not much time to be fancy and a desire to be somewhat healthy. Hopefully, by documenting some of our favorite recipes (or some of our flops), we’ll cook in greater diversity and healthier than otherwise.

I am going to try and post pictures of what AB and I cook, along with recipes as much as possible. To give a vague idea of budget constraints, we’re living in Maryland (way more expensive than the Midwest we’re used to), allocating about $85/week to groceries for 2 people. It was more expensive at the beginning, but as we stocked up on some of the staples, each week has gotten a little better.

I also hope this gives a little bit of insight into what my little sis is doing at college, since I can’t check up on her this year.

Drank an Asahi at Blue Friday night.  Very similar to Sapporo, but without the little bit of bitterness near the end. Pretty much entirely smooth.

Drank a bottle of Oranjeboom tonight at the Dundee Dell, and it was solid. Really light, tasty.