Insomnia

I cannot sleep.  It's ridiculous.  I didn't go to bed until 12:45, but I couldn't stay asleep... I just tossed and turned and dozed in and out.  At 4:00 I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep... so at 5:30 I decided to get on the computer.

Lately I've been going through photos on the computer and deleting them because we were down to 12 GB of space.  Now we have 35 GB of space.  It's amazing how many photos we have on here!

Here's to memories!

moldy bread

the name

When it comes to naming things... well, let's face it, I'm horrible at it.  A pig's better at flying than I am at naming.

That's why I tend to leave things unnamed until someone else comes up with something that works.

This is also why my blog name is so boring.  I haven't thought of something that's awesome enough to change it to. . . so I've just left it boring instead.

It did come up with a new title for my blog, as I'm sure you've noticed, Gourmanna.  I thought I'd just explain it briefly.

I am not claiming to be a gourmet chef.  In fact, I've never cooked a gourmet meal in my life.  That doesn't mean I'm not going to try someday, but up to this point in time I haven't, and I'm sure it would be a disaster if I did.

However, I do claim to be a gourmand, a lover of good food/one who takes great pleasure in good food.  So, I just decided to incorporate my name into that and came up with gourmanna (with no intentional reference to the old testament's manna).

And, even though I do overeat at times, I'm not claiming to be a glutton either.  I'm applying the more modern definition of the word to myself, in which glutton and gourmand are not synonymous.

Basically, it just means that I like tasty, delicious food. :-)

spiedies

A while ago I made yummy spiedies, which is basically just an Italian-American kabob.  The meat marinates for... well, as long as you let it.  At least 1 day, but up to 2 weeks.  Mine marinated for 3 days.  And the flavor? It was delicious.

My largest regret is that... I don't have a grill.  It would've been so much tastier with a smoky flavor. . . with the juices oozing out and dribbling down my chin with each bite.... the slightly crispy or blackened outside of the chicken cubes.  Yes.  I want a grill (well, only sometimes, but really it would just mean I had one more piece of "stuff" and I hate "stuff"). 

The recipe suggested it be served with Italian Scali bread, but I didn't know how to make that so I made Greek Flatbread instead.  Unfortunately, I didn't cook it all the way and it was still a little doughy.  It was still good though.

See how juicy it is?  The juices didn't have anywhere to drip to when the meat was cooking... and the outside was soft, not crispy. :(

This was especially annoying... all the juices from the chicken just soaked into the bread and made it soggy.  Yes.  It would've been better with a grill.

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Jesse gave this one either a 4.5 or a 5, I think, but I can't remember for sure.

I would give it a 4.5 or so had it been made with a grill. :P  The vegetables are optional too. . . Jesse liked the onion but he didn't like the green pepper.  I think traditionally it's just the marinated meat that is eaten in Italian bread.

I will definitely make this again someday. . . once I have access to a grill. :P

Kung Pao Chicken

I made Kung Pao Chicken recently.  I can't remember where I found the recipe, but I didn't have all the ingredients, so it turned out a little funky... plus I added too much vinegar which caused me and Jesse to both cough a lot during the consumption of it.  Also, Jesse's mouth caught on fire when he ate one of the red chili peppers.  Hehehe.

I think I would try it again... if I had all the ingredients.  It was fun to make and eat, with all the different textures in it.

Scallions, garlic, bamboo, ginger, chili peppers

garlic, ginger, chili peppers

chicken, snow peas, sauce + above ingredients

ready for consumption

The biggest problem I think I had was that I didn't have rice wine or black vinegar.  So it had a more bitter taste, and I think rice wine has a sweet taste.  Oh well.  Better luck next time. :)

Friand Fail

One of Jesse's favorite restaurants is a little "French" cafe called "La Madeleine."  He especially loves their chicken friand, something I'd only eaten once in my life.

Since he loves it so much, I wanted to make it for him as a special dinner.  After a lengthy search on the internet, I found a recipe.

Here are pictures from the cooking adventure.

Dried mushrooms rehydrating

Green onions

Fresh mushooms

Chopping the chicken

Cooked chicken

The sauce

Mushrooms + chicken

Mushrooms + chicken + cheese

  Puff pastries.

All baked!

Finished product

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The end result?

It was not good.  No, it wasn't horrible.  Jesse ate all of his.  I only ate a half of mine.  The other half plus the extra whole one sat in the fridge for a few days until I finally threw it out.

I think it had potential to be delicious, but it was a fail.

I personally think it just had too much mushroom flavor (I love mushrooms).  I think it was from the dried mushrooms; they had such a strong flavor.  Maybe if I'd gotten a different variety it would've been better, though I think it would've tasted best with only fresh mushrooms and without the mushroom broth... I'd use chicken broth instead.  It was just way rich and heavy with all those mushrooms.

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Maybe I'll try it again someday, but not any time soon... we're still recovering, and I made this mid November.