Pizza Piety

My two friends from undergrad, Inky and Karen were over this week for New Year's. We had a nice Baldwin House reunion and were finally able to hang out without the stress of schoolwork hanging over our heads, which meant that we had time to experiment a little in the kitchen.

So was birthed this pizza. We used whatever I had in the fridge and pantry. The dough is made from 3 ingredients: flour, baking powder, and plain greek yogurt (using a take on this recipe). On top is grated cheese, pasta sauce, corn, mixed greens, leftover ham, and some sliced up hard boiled eggs for the vegetarian half of the pizza. 

Once it was cooked, it was tasty but the dough wasn't very crispy. Next time we need to actually knead the pizza dough, and maybe spread it a little thinner for a crispier crust. This definitely calls for a repeat!

We finished off the meal by whipping together some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

xo, Kristin

Stir Fry Me to the Moon

So here's the deal. I'm obsessed with stir frying. You buy whatever the you want, put it on the stove, and BAM. It's fool-proof delicious. I love throwing stuff in the hot pan (no measuring), smelling my genius cooking, and feeling like a chef. Several of many minor variations below:

The basic blend: veggies with meat n' tofu. Martin's Kitchen Secrets #1: salt and pepper (and I think here some soy sauce and sugar) make everything good.

This is from the website "The Stone Soup," which provides easy and healthy recipes for the incompetent. It's zucchini and beef with some yuzu something substituted for the lemon. 

 Getting feisty here with some tumeric, chili powder, and cumin.

God I hate chopping. But I love when it looks profesh.

Martin

The Ketchup Game

Hey!

Kristin wasn't lying. I did arrive safely in Japan! And I even have internet now. Well, sort of. Long story. Anyway, it's time to play catch up! One would think this post would be really long, but I kind of suck at cooking. I also blame:

 1) My fridge. It has been broken.
 2) People that keep making food for me. Japanese people are too nice. Really. I wish they were less so.

Anyway, here's a quick play-by-play of my culinary endeavors. All the recipes are from this (kinda mediocre) Japanese cookbook I found for my kindle. Fortunately, all the recipes are easy, have few ingredients, and produce good portions for someone living on his own. Thank you "Simple & Easy Japanese Summertime Recipes," and Kyoko Tanaka, for giving me food that is always perfectly good enough!

Firstly:

This is corn soup, cucumber salad, and rice. How healthy! It is fun to check out at the supermarket with a bunch of Japanese ingredients and see the cash register lady look impressed. Everything is cold, so it's perfect for summer!

Taste: 7/10 (good enough!)
Difficulty: 4/10 (the most difficult part was finding a blender in the countryside)

Next up!

  

This is cold udon noodles with some sauce, as well as cold simmered tomatoes! I love these two. The udon was supposed to be soumen (thinner noodles) but I don't like them as much. The tomatoes taste so summery and good. Both the tomatoes from this dinner and and the cucumbers from the last one were welcome gifts from my landlord!

Taste: 9/10

Difficulty: 6/10 (had to take the skins off the tomatoes ah!)

Both of these meals lasted several days, and I've made them multiple times. Lastly, here are some random, stand-alone things that I made:

The top is cold tofu with some simmered tomatoes. The best!

Taste: 10/10

Difficulty: 6/10 (it's really very very easy,  but I was impatient with waiting for the tomatoes to cool in my lackluster fridge)

The bottom is kind of a joke. It's meat-wrapped asparagus. So weird. I didn't have enough meat so it looks super stupid. 

Taste: 8/10 (surprisingly good considering the bad proportions)

Difficulty: 8/10 (obviously this was a challenge for me)

Woohoo all caught up! Soon I will be going to purchase a new fridge and the adventure will continue!

Martin