Peppers are pretty

I keep it real simple when I cook. I might tell you it's part of some back-to-the-earth, respecting the ingredients world view, but it's just because I'm lazy. Every night I pick one meat and one (maybe 2!) vegetables, and go crazy with salt, pepper, and sometimes yuzu/soy sauce/miso. Tonight was some meat thing and some peppers! They're so pretty!!

Martin

PotLuck

Martin and Debbie have arrived safely in Japan, and wont have internet for a little while, and I am on a month break from school and get to avoid preparing anything more difficult than a bowl of cereal! :D :D

I guess the blog's going to take a couple weeks hiatus. In the meantime, I leave you with some pictures from the potluck party I threw in my dormitory.

The good thing about potlucks is a lot of people bring food, and so you don't have to eat the food you yourself prepared for the potluck. The other people get stuck doing that. Ha ha! Plus, the added advantage of actually throwing the potluck means that you get to keep all the delicious leftovers.

Other people prepping food. That's what I like to see! Here we have pasta, egg plant, melting chocolate, and something green.

Mac prepares a spinach, strawberry, and fetta salad. OMG YUM.

Gorging on food. Sipping wine. Enjoying the Olympics. 

Kristin

Free meal!

Tonight I made myself sauteed kale and tomatoes with rice. Preparation was exactly how it sounds. Not hard. Not impressive. Very delicious. 

The brown rice I bought using my parents' credit card last month at Price Chopper.

The tomatoes I got for free at Stop and Shop because they were mislabeled and I complained about it.

The kale I pilfered late last night from the college community gardens.

Rating: 7/10
Prep time: Set the rice to cook in rice cooker 30 mins before sauteing veggies. Total prep time, 35 mins.
Difficulty: 3/10

Next time I'll cut up the kale into smaller pieces and not overcook the rice (I hope).

Kristin

Salad-y Malady

Once in a while I get a horrid wake up call to the disastrous realities that stem from preparing food for myself. Last night was one of these instances.

Who would think that hotdog, spinach, macaroni salad, avocado, cherry tomatoes, and onion would be an odd combination?

What I got from it was a nauseous feeling.

BUT, I'm not totally convinced yet that it was the combination of foods that made me feel a little sick. While preparing the food, I had to keep sticking my head in the fridge to take out some of the ingredients. Right now, our communal dorm fridge smells rank.

One of my housemates put strongly smelling food in there and it made everything else (even the freezer) smell like her food. Which is not pleasant. Then, my food began to soak up the not-so-savory smell.

SO, it could be the smell and not the food combo giving me this weird feeling. Thoughts? Does this salad sound na$ty?

***

Update (7/22) - The next day I went and ate the leftovers. I ended up taking the hotdog out. Nauseous feeling avoided!

Kristin

why hello there

I'm Debbie, the third (and mostly invisible) contributor to this blog. I'm 21 years old, and up until now have never really had to fend for myself in the kitchen. Someone was always around to feed me, or at the very least stand over me to say It's so simple what is wrong with you just keep stirring. Now that I've graduated from college and am leaving my parents' home for a teaching gig in Hokkaido, for the first time in my life I'll be in charge of nourishing my body!

This coming year can only be a win-win situation. I will either a) discover an innate talent and become the goddess of homemade cooking or b) lose a lot of weight. Be prepared for my epic culinary exploits, guys! 

My real posts will begin in August. But here's a picture of what I ate last week. I didn't make it. I didn't even buy it. My mom bought it and fed it to me. When left to my own devices I tend to stick to cereal.

Kimchi jjigae (soup), seaweed, sausages, rice.

Okonomiyaki Dinner Party

For those of you who don't know, okonomiyaki is a sort of cabbage pancake eaten in Japan. Okonomiyaki is relatively healthy, cheap, and ooo so delicious. Hands down it was my favorite food when I lived in Japan.

Not only does it taste AWESOME, but there's a certain social aspect that goes along with eating okonomiyaki. It's a food you eat with friends while sitting gathered around the electric grill to chat and make food together.

Since it's so cheap and easy to make, I decided to do okonomiyaki for tonight's impromptu dinner party.

Now, okonomiyaki can get complicated. You'll see some recipes online that call for special flour, daikon, things that you can only find at Asian specialty stores, etc. These are unnecessary. If you want to eat good okonomiyaki, all you really need is eggs, flour, water, cabbage, and the contents of your fridge.

Tonight's dorm fridge haul included:

tomatoes
onions
garlic

Not so involved, but enough extra ingredients to make a good, vegetarian okonomiyaki. We topped it with mayonaise and tonkatsu sauce and it was awesome!!

Batter and chopped vegetables

Okonomiyaki pancake

Over-ripe cherries

Finished !

Rating: 9.5/10
Prep Time: 1 hour (included frying up a TON of pancakes)
Difficulty: 3/10

Kristin