Probably finishing up the last of my food I made on Sunday: twisty noodles with Prego (flavored with meat!), cinnamon carrots, and plain and garlic salt chicken.

I'm very excited about a friend who may be coming over to help me test out my fondue pot. (I bought it on a whim when I first was getting appliances because it was cheap and electric and so now I feel obligated to use it because I looooooooooooove fondue.) But I have no idea when we'll be getting together because both of our schedules are crazy.

Pizza pizza pizza! Always pizza on Friday night. Tonight's flavour is goat's cheese with olives and fresh thyme. And a salad with balsamic vinaigrette on the side. And wine.

Mine is dinner. I have hardly any food in the place so I'm headed off to Morrisons and will make something when I get back, probably fish and veggies. I'm in a fishy mood.

I'm making caramelized onion focaccia for dinner. I don't know how to spell focaccia.

And escarole soup!

Dinner. I'm making oniony hamburgers with bacon fused on top, braised brussels sprouts and snap peas, and a salad with whatever is in the fridge. I'd really like to make a mustard sauce for my sprouts and peas, but there's a mustard bias at the table, and so I'll probably whip up something less tasty.

At the moment I'm at the Sandpiper Café in Juneau waiting for a grilled vegetarian on focaccia with fries.

Coffee and Girl Scout cookies.

spaghetti under spinach and tomatoes

Pizza day over here too. Yay!

I had Raisin Bran for breakfast. Lunch is next, but I'm not sure what I'm going to eat. Friday night is always Nachos night! Yummm!

I just returned from brunch with The Fella and Mom a bit ago, and can't even contemplate another meal yet. I had fried green tomatoes, dressed arugula, and dark double-fried fries, (all from local farmers' fields and greenhouses). Mmmm.

Am certainly making baguettes this evening, and caramelizing onions and making pie crust for a quiche this weekend.

Hockey game food - usually hot dogs or pizza and beer. Yum!

Next meal is dinner, and the only thing I know is that I will not be cooking. Food will come from wherever we decide to get take out.

lunch (just ate, U.S. Mountain Standard time):

A big fat southwest salad from the deli up the street. It contained crunchy greens, corn, black beans, asadero, onions, avocado and lean roast chicken; mmm tasty! I order it with salsa instead of dressing, and sans tortilla chips for more zing and fewer calories.... which I then of course completely nixed the entire calorie savings of both the walk there and the ingredients by falling victim to one of their enormous chocolate chip cinnamon coffee cakes with apple filling (OM NOM NOM)

This was all topped off by a sunny, gorgeous 50° walk for ~10 minutes to and from the deli, through open space trails that cross a wetland full of shorebirds and have the snow-covered Front Range and Flatirons as backdrop. I saw a red fox along these trails last week in the snow.

waiting for a grilled vegetarian on focaccia with fries.

Mm, grilled vegetarian!

I don't know what to eat for dinner. I'm hoping someone mentions something tempting here.

Coffee.

I'm thinking of making an avocado green curry tonight.

I had some uninspiring leftover pasta, which I'd been picking at since 10:00. But that wasn't doing much for me, so I cadged half a muffing someone had left in the breakroom, along with a handful of really good German licorice. I guess the sugar jitters will be kicking in here pretty soon.

kodama, I think I need a recipe.

ditto msali. I think I will demand Thai food. Or Mexican.

Open face, with avocado and melted cheese (guyere, jack and cheddar) on top of very chewy Great Harvest Dakota bread.

Some strawberrys.

(still amazed that I got NO favorites for my "Avocados: the other green meat" comment in the MeFi thread on avos earlier this week)

Graham Crackers, and juice.

(I work at a children's museum).

I kind of wing it for my curries, but I've had the most success when I use a real Thai Curry base. I used to shop at this tiny asian grocery in Olympia and I discovered this curry paste: Mae Ploy Thai Green Curry Paste which as the link indicates you can buy at Amazon(!) Anyway the paste is a good base but extra work is needed, so this is what I do:

I use a pan that's part way toward a wok, but you could use a wok or even just a pot for this.

Put a bit of oil (sesame, peanut or chili preferred) in the pan and saute:
* Garlic (1-2 cloves, or to taste),
* Onions
* and 1 or more (to desired heat) diced hot pepper (Thai chili if you can get them, Serrano's are my fall back)
* with about a tablespoon of the curry paste.
-Toss into above right after sauteing for a bit:
* Sliced ginger (galanga if you can get it)
* Slice pieces a bit crushed lemon grass,
* A bit of cilantro.
-Mix above together then add can of coconut milk (I tend to use Lite Coconut milk, or 1 can lite 1 can normal if I'm making a big batch).
* Add a dash or two of fish sauce.
* Add more curry paste until it tastes how you like it. I usually add at least another tablespoon.
-You don't really want to bring this to a boil, but close.

So that's pretty much a green curry. You want to put stuff into it in order of amount of time it takes. In Thai cooking there usually isn't too many ingredients, but use what you like. My favorite to use is thinly sliced bell peppers, Japanese eggplant and the aforementioned avocado. Those would go in in that order and you want to be done when the eggplant is near mush. Tonight though I'm going to use carrots, snow peas, bell peppers and the avocado.

Okay so protein additions. I make it with tofu and lately I've been pressing it and then tossing it in. The longer its in the better, but with tofu definitely don't boil the curry or it gets puffy. Frying it first is great of course. Also freezing it and then de-thawing it first. I used to make chicken curry before I (mostly) gave up the meat and the trick to it was to pan fry it half way first. Otherwise it totally drys out.

I serve this on brown rice which IMO is incredible with curry on it, especially green curry. Leftovers I reheat on the stove, mix the rice in and then wrap in a wheat tortilla. I call these "Thai tacos"

(Damn looking at Amazon it just boggles my mind that you can get international food items. They have Kaffir Lime Leaves, Lemongrass and galangal. That right there is the essence og hot and sour soup if you ever want to make it. And look Thai Chile Peppers!)

I had salmon in a lime/cilantro marinade, served on a bed of shredded lettuce, and with grilled peppers, asparagus and courgette on the side. I love going to the supermarket at the end of the day when everything's being knocked down in price.

I had raspberries with crème fraîche for dessert.

Hot Dogs, bourbon, beer. It's a damned blizzard.

Mini pancakes!

≡ Click to see image ≡

I ended up making nachos and ate way too much and now I feel like a giant blob.

Chicken and dumplings for dinner. Hubby's favorite, and he's had a long trying week. Plus it's one of the easiest dinners I know how to make.

Split chicken breasts with honey barbecue sauce and spinach in butter. I threatened the boys that I wasn't going to make dinner, (because they gave me a hard time about shoveling/walking the dog), but I caved because I was hungry.

Revisiting to say, Now I know what's for dinner!

FURY AND THE BLOOD OF MY ENEMIES!

I have had a rough afternoon. Also, a large coffee.

Elsa .. I want to go with you next time you get dark double-fried fries!

Well, payroll sorted out the day that had been missed two paychecks ago, so I splurged a bit and went to the Indian restaurant up the street for their lunch buffet, where deliciousness is inversely proportional to price. Unfortunately, I never do justice to buffets because my eyes are about nine thousand times bigger than my stomach, so I don't do them often.

And then coming out of there, despite my stomach being all "what did you just do to me", I still had regrets over not ordering a mango lassi. And lo, there arose before me the sign of Sweet Berry, and somehow I found a tiny amount of room for a small frozen yogurt with mango chunks. Best lunch in ages.

I had a nap instead of lunch - 12:30 to 5:00; guess I needed it. The mister is putting the nachos together now. My stomach thinks my throat has been cut.

Cooking intimidates me. I don't know why; mr. init always seems to like whatever I make, but I have a big inferiority complex about it all.

So he is away this week, and I've decided that I'm going to branch out a bit while he's away; if my food sucks, I'll be the only one to know, and if it doesn't, new dinners in the rotation! :-) So tonight, I went out and got ready-made pizza dough and stuff to cut up and put on. Assembly, baking, eating, and hey, it's pretty good!

I'd like to make my own sauce and dough eventually ... but baby steps for now. :-)

Late lunch was tuna and lots of mixed greens in a wrap. Dinner may be salsa and chips. I've been cleaning up the flooded basement, and I'm pooped. Also not done, but am not Superwoman.

Sloppy Joe's. We had some in the freezer, and we have fresh buns (don't repeat that).

Elsa .. I want to go with you next time you get dark double-fried fries!

But not when I next sup on the blood of my enemies? Whevs.

Let's go tomorrow! I could eat these fries every single day and never tire of them.

Dinner will be roasted Yukon Gold potatoes, broccoli raab sauteed with garlic and red pepper flakes, and rib-eye steaks. I'm craving a Northern California cabernet to go with all this, so we'll see what we can dig up. (And ikkyu2 just made me a lovely pre-dinner martini. I swear to god, I'm marrying the world's best bartender.)

Just ate some oyster chowder and a tangelo.