perhaps they’ll recruit me for Top Chef Season 2?
April 30th, 2006 @ 8:57 pm | domestic, food | Post a CommentAfter a weekend of gluttonous eating out with the future in-laws, I decided to make something healthy and hearty for dinner tonight that would make good leftovers all week: minestrone. I’ve never made it before, but after browsing a few recipes online, figured it couldn’t be that hard. At the store we bought just about every kind of veggie Andrew could fathom eating, I snuck a few extras into the cart, and we were halfway there.
It took a lot of chopping, but the end result was super delicious. And meat-free! (I am always trying to leave out the meat and see if Andrew notices.) There must be 20 different veggies and beans in it; I honestly can’t remember everything I included. For some reason this picture makes it seem like it was all pasta and no veggies; maybe I just didn’t mix well enough for the picture.
The best part (of course, cheese and oil!) were the little parmesan crisps I baked in the oven. Ingredients: thinly sliced ciabatta, drizzled olive oil, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese.
And because we had a huge bunch of really brown bananas, we made a batch of healthy banana bread from this recipe I found with a little help from Google. Except we left out the chocolate chips because God knows when I have chocolate chips in the house, very, very bad things happen (to my thighs, mostly).
Christine would be so proud. Looks like you’re well on your way to be a top notch wife. Hahah! Bring Andrew over to our house sometime and we’ll trick him into eating ‘fake meat’ (boca crubles etc) and he won’t even know it! Sucker! Oh, I’m sorry, Andrew, were you reading that?
written by alison
April 30th, 2006 @ 10:05 pm
Everything looks wonderful! Andrew is such a lucky guy…has he told you that? Also, is that the trivet you painted awhile ago at the pottery place? How did it turn out?
written by Sarah
May 1st, 2006 @ 5:52 am
Must get the minestrone recipe, looks great!
written by Alexa
May 1st, 2006 @ 7:57 am
Wow, you work, you exercise, AND you cook? I’m very impressed. I thought minestrone was a kind of soup! I really need to learn how to cook.
written by Jennifer
May 1st, 2006 @ 8:37 am
Jennifer — it is supposed to be soup, but I think what happened was that I put too many veggies in the pot so when it came time to add broth I kinda ran out of room. Then I sprinkled some pasta in on top, it soaked up the litle broth that there was, and that’s why it doesnt look soupy. Oh well though
Ali - I don’t think Andrew would eat the boca crumbles, but I am not above trying!
Sarah - yes, you have such a good memory. I should post an “after” photo! (and yes the boy knows he is lucky! tee hee)
Lex - I’m happy to pass on the recipe, even though I made it up and didn’t write it down…we can discuss at lunch today
written by Janet
May 1st, 2006 @ 8:52 am
Boca crumbles are very good. My husband was very, “I’m not eating fake meat, it’ll be nasty.” Until I fed it to him and he didn’t notice. We also use ground turkey a LOT. It’s lower in everything, fat, choloesteral, etc and it tastes a lot like red meat. I make turkey chili, turkey enchiladas, turkey meatloaf etc. Hubby eats it all. (He especially loves that it’s cheap! hehe)
written by Paige
May 1st, 2006 @ 9:55 am
paige - I am SO with you on the turkey products. we are firm believers in the turkey varieties of sausage, pepperoni, and regular ground. We never buy the real stuff anymore!
written by Janet
May 1st, 2006 @ 12:34 pm
That banana bread looks delish!
written by jessica
May 1st, 2006 @ 12:49 pm
i’d marry you if you made me minestrone and banana bread.
written by betsy g.
May 1st, 2006 @ 9:39 pm
Well, soup or not, it looks pretty damn good. I am duly impressed with your culinary skills.
Yesterday I broke a caserole dish. Without dropping it. I assure you, it IS possible. You just say, “Heck, I don’t need to use the broiling pan, I hate cleaning that thing and I don’t really know what the difference between broiling and baking is anyway. I’ll just put the oven up to 500 degrees and cook the fish in this caserole dish!”
Oops.
The fish still tasted OK. And we have way too many dishes for our rowhouse-sized kitchen anyway.
written by Jennifer
May 2nd, 2006 @ 8:16 am
As much as it sounds un-PC, guys really do appreciate domesticity, and I hear look for it in their future wives (Well, this is according to my aunt and my current beau). As they always say, “a way to man’s heart is through his stomach,” and I fully believe in that saying.
written by Tanya L.
May 4th, 2006 @ 8:54 am