More cooking

I've been cooking more lately.  Yoo-hoo!  I'm still in the process of trying all sorts of recipes (mostly based off what's on sale :-) ) to see what kind of food we both like.  So far, so good.  We've both enjoyed everything I've made so far.  Yay!  Jesse is fun to cook for because he's not picky and is willing to try new foods.  Plus, if I make something he thinks is really yummy he gets happy.

If he was picky I think I would hate to cook.  Thankfully, he is not.

I went to the library in Siloam Springs to try to find some cookbooks.  I happened to stumbled upon one called "Healing Foods," a book with recipes designed to take care of your body and potentially heal/prevent/lower the risk of certain health problems/diseases.  Whether or not it works, I don't know, but I can see that the recipes are healthy and based off of natural ingredients and are much better for us than spaghetti and Alfredo sauce. :-)

So far we've only tried one recipe out of the cookbook, photos below.

Flavorful Chicken in Bok Choy leaves

Flavorful Chicken in Bok Choy leaves

  I found the bok choy at Wal-mart and wanted to try it.  Neither Jesse nor I had ever had bok choy before.  We actually both really, really liked it.  The only think we didn't like was that I hadn't made more of them. . . Jesse dubbed it "the opposite food" because he was more hungry after he finished the two of them than he was before.  This was basically like a healthier version of a potsticker.

Speaking of potstickers, I also made some of those.  I didn't have ground pork, so I experimented with chicken and beef.  Also, I didn't have won-ton wrappers so I made my own.  Wayyyy too much work, if you ask me.

Chicken Potsticker filling

Beef potsticker filling

The potstickers "steaming"

I also experimented with some oriental flavored pasta (without rice noodles, though!)

Oriental pasta

Potstickers, oriental pasta, and spicy dipping sauce

The dipping sauce was a little too spicy for me.  Less red pepper flakes next time, I think. . .


I also made Chili.  I mostly was wanting to experiment with freezing it and eating it at a later time.

Homemade Chili

And for breakfast one morning. . .

French Toast

Totally not healthy, right?  It sure was yummy though!


Today I made Ecuadorian style lentils and rice.  They were scrumptious.

Arroz Con Menestra

I also made yummy bread, called "Naan."  It's sort of Indian/Pakistani, but it's spread to many other countries as well.  It was delicious.  And pretty simple.  Jesse loved it, and so did the other people who tried it.

Garlic Naan

I served some lentils with it.

Lebanese Lemon Lentils

I'd say these two foods were a hit, considering there were no leftovers.


That's pretty much all the food. . .
as for other things going on in life, I'm still jobless, Jesse started school last week (and already has lots of homework), and our little duplex is slowly starting to look like a home.  There's actually a few decorations on the walls!  Woo-hoo!

That's all for now. :-)

Chef Janna

Jesse and I got married 30 days ago. In some ways it feel like we've been married forever. In other ways it feels like I barely know him. It's really strange.


This was taken in San Francisco on our honeymoon. I think it was when we were walking from Lombard street to our hotel. Maybe not though. The day and events tend to blend together.


Since we've been married I've been doing lots and lots and lots of cooking, so I decided to share with you some of the things I've been making.

One of the first things I made was chicken and rice. Only, this is kind of cheating to call it MY cooking, because the rice was pre-prepared. I seasoned the chicken myself though. :P



Another thing I made was Herbed Lentils and Rice. This picture of it isn't very pretty, but it sure was yummy. We're eating a lot of lentils, actually. They're yummy and cheap. Perfect for the broke, newly married college students.



I made another lentil dish called Spicy Lentils. It's my sister's recipe and it's Indian. It wasn't very spicy though, because I don't have Cayenne pepper, so I just used black pepper. It was still tasty though.



I also made yummy homemade spaghetti sauce. We found some really cheap turkey sausage at Wal-mart for only $1.18/lb, so I used some of that in here. Surprisingly, we both really like the turkey. After we made spaghetti sauce with turkey, I made it with ground beef and neither of us liked it as much. The texture was more gritty and strange, not as smooth as the turkey. I think we're slowly being converted away from the typical American diet of. . . beef, beef, and beef. Actually, Jesse and I realized that in the 3 weeks we've lived in Arkansas, and of the 60 or so meals we've eaten since then (breakfast, lunch, dinner), we've only eaten meat about 10 of those times. I think I could definitely be a vegetarian. . . but definitely not vegan.


Before we left Texas, my mom packed us some of the ingredients to make Seven Layers Bars. They were at our wedding, but we didn't really get to eat any. So a few days ago, I decided I should make them.

This is pre-chocolate/butterscotch chips and pre-bake.

And this is what the scrumptious things look like post bake. They are DELICIOUS. We have a few tupperwares of them in the freezer, because Jesse and I obviously couldn't (. . . or at least, shouldn't . . .) eat a whole 9x13 pan of them by ourselves in just 3 or 4 days.

These pathetic looking creatures are graham crackers. The first layer of the Seven Layer bars pictured above is graham crackers. My mom had sent us up with some with the other ingredients, but unfortunately they had gotten turned into mush when the ice-cubes in the cooler melted and the crackers were submerged in the water. So I decided to try to make homemade ones, rather than going to the store to buy them. Plus, I have nothing else to do all day, as I'm currently unemployed. I wasn't going for looks, as I was just going to grind them into crumbs, but they were surprisingly yummy! If I make them again, I'll definitely try to make them more visually pleasing.


I've also made biscuits. This are whole wheat biscuits, and they're actually pretty tasty. They're a lot more filling than white biscuits are.


I've also been trying to grow some herbs.

This is what they looked like after about 4 days of growth.

This is what my basil plant looked like about 6 days ago. The plant is now about 1 1/2 inches tall. The cilantro is more than 2 inches tall. They're so cute. I can't wait to eat them. I named them. Basil is pronounced "Bass-ill" and I call my cilantro, "Cilly." Obviously I need a job. :-)

I've also made Spicy Black Beans and rice, cornbread, blueberry muffins, chicken salad, and much more. I just didn't feel like taking photos. . . or making you bored.

Well, that's all for now. Ta-ta!

Knives.

We recently bought four new knives from Bed Bath and Beyond; a paring knife, a utility knife, a chef's knife, and a bread knife, all the J.A. Henckels brand. I really wanted to get a few nicer, sharper knives that I would actually use rather than spending the same amount on a full set of knives (most of which I don't need/use) that were more prone to dullness.

I was so excited that I finally got these knives (I've been dreaming about them since we began our gift registries) so when we got home, I immediately took them out of their package and held them up and gently touched their edges, admiring their fine craftsmanship.

I was so eager to make dinner that day and utilize the new knives, but then I realized I had nothing to chop and was thoroughly disappointed.

On Friday night we had Jonathan and two JBU friends over for dinner. I chopped up an onion for spaghetti sauce with the chef's knife and left the knife sitting on the counter when I finished. I was using my hand to brush some of the onion skin flakes and bread crumbs off the counter into the trash can and forgot the knife was there (well, maybe I just didn't think it would matter). My finger just barely grazed the edge and immediately I shouted, "Oh no, dang it, dang it! Jesse, I just cut myself!" I didn't know how bad it was cut, because I was just squeezing my finger as hard as I could, hoping to prevent, or at least delay the flow of blood from my finger.

As it turns out, the cut was very small and there was no harm done. It was a false alarm, but it definitely taught me to respect our new knives. Had I done the same thing with my mom's chef knife sitting on the counter, I think the grazing of my finger would have bumped the knife away, rather than causing the blade to slice through my flesh.

I think I may have learned my lesson a little too well, actually, as ever since then I've been almost too scared to use my own knives. In fact, I have what I call "day-meres" over them. We were driving back from Fayetteville on Saturday and all I could think about was those knives. I tried to get my mind off it and think about things like cows and flowers. . . until I realize that I chop up cows with knives and remembered that I've used knives to cut the stems off of flowers before putting them into a vase. . . which caused me to envision a slip of the hand and the severing of a finger.

The day-mere became worse and worse as I imagined my razor sharp knives being used as torture instruments. I couldn't keep my mind from imagining someone making small incisions all across my body - similar to paper cuts - and then dunking my body in lemon juice or rubbing salt into the wounds.

You know that feeling you get when you imagine nails against a chalk board? You know, that black chalkboard with white scribble across it? and a prom queen with freakishly long fake nails placing her hand on that board. . . and then digging her nails hard into the board and making a strong, slow, long motion downward. . . and the screeching sensation that rings and throbs in your ear drums?

Do you remember that feeling now? Well, that's how I felt the whole way home from Fayetteville. Seriously, the knives were torturing me without even touching me. . . my mind was so tormented.

but the knives have not won! I will tame them yet.

Married

Yay! We've been married 22 days now.

We love it.

Arkansas is hot.

Our duplex is nice and big.

And we have friends here. :-)

All in all, we're doing well.

Currently unemployed, but we are applying!