A late Merry Christmas

A belated "Merry Christmas" to all.


But oh wow, it really has been a while since I last posted!  I promise though, there will be something new up on the blog in the very near future. ;)

Potato Soup

I made this little concoction a few weeks ago.  What went into that bowl of deliciousness before you is a straight forward mixture of onions, garlic, celery, potatoes, chicken broth (or stock), bay leaf, salt & pepper, and olive oil.  Oh, and if you want, a splash of milk or cream! (I didn't use any).  I don't have the exact measurements of what I used - in fact, I never measure ingredients when I cook, but the process is fairly simple.

It's Been Awhile

Wow.  Nearly two months have gone by since I've posted anything.  I still cook regularly here at college - mostly tasty, but generally not picture worthy.  Perhaps in a day or two once I'm home I'll cook up something and put it up on the blog.

From Scratch

So I've officially made my first from-scratch dish while at college.  What did I make?

Hm... Let's see...

Well, it involved a whole-lotta tomatoes!

So what was it?  Soup?  Salsa?  Something else?

..................

Tomato sauce!

*doh* I just realized that I never took a picture of the finished product (as in arranged nicely on a plate).  There were also green beans in a lemon-butter sauce and a salad of micro greens (arugula and mustard greens) with a tomato/honey mustard dressing, neither of which I have pictures of.  Oh well.  All I can say is "please imagine some pictures of the aforementioned items."

Ingredients:

    (Sauce)

• 5 cups fresh (or canned) tomatoes
• 1/3 fresh basil (julienned)
• 1 tbsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tbsp. thyme
• 3-4 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 (or more/less to taste) red chili flakes
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 box pasta (any kind)

-----X-----

    (Beans)

• 1/2 lb. green beans 
• 2-3 tbsp. (or thereabouts) butter
• 2 tsp. thyme
• juice of 1 small-medium lemon
• salt to taste   

-----X-----

    (Salad)

• 2 1/2 cups assorted micro greens (any kind)
• 1/4 tomatoes (*fresh) - diced or minced
• dressing of choice

Directions:

    (Sauce)

1. Bring oil to temperature (high heat) in a good sized soup pot or sauce pan.
2. Cut tomatoes (if using fresh) into thin slices.  Add them to the hot oil.
3. Let tomatoes sauté on their own for about 10 minutes, or until it starts to look like the beginning of a chunky tomato soup - whichever comes first.
4. Add salt, red chili flakes, thyme, and basil.  Mix well.
5. Reduce heat to medium, and allow sauce to simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally (it usually takes me about 45 minutes).
6. After sauce has simmered, add cheese.
7. **Somewhere towards the end of step #5, begin to cook the pasta.

-----X-----

    (Beans)

1. Trim the ends off of your green beans, and boil them in salted water until they reach a vibrant green color.
2. Drain water (as much as possible) from beans, and return to pot.
3. Add butter, lemon juice, thyme, and salt to the green beans, and cook for approximately 2-3 minutes on medium heat.

-----X-----

    (Salad)

     ***self-explanatory :)

Moved In

*big sigh of relief*   I'm finally done moving into my dorm!  My roommate's pretty nice, and we get along well, so there really isn't much else to worry about aside from doing well in (and actually finding) my classes.  I had originally planned on doing some cooking - maybe once or twice a week - but after seeing the kitchen... HECK NO!  I'll don't have a picture, but it's well... interesting.  I can deal with old/outdated and somewhat malfunctioning equipment, but I do need some space.  So it goes without saying - I'll be doing a bunch of cooking from my microwave.

Pictures *at last*

For some unknown reason, the pictures that I took of the teriyaki steak have disappeared from my phone.  The original recipe for the marinade, in addition to pictures, by Lisa, can be found at Cook Lisa Cook.  I basically used her exact recipe, but changed out the dry mustard for a couple heaping tablespoons of country dijon (I had none of the dry mustard).  Due to this, I won't post the recipe directly on my own blog, since: 1) it isn't my own; and 2) I did very little to alter it.  So please imagine a nice photo of some delicious steaks below.

Almost two weeks ago, I also mentioned making a  Shrimp Salad, but never got around to posting pictures of it.  Well, I've finally gotten to it!

Again, I modified Lisa's recipe based on what I had in my own fridge - and also a few ingredients that I felt like including.  But if anyone would like to see the original recipe, then it's right here.  Also, I scaled everything down a bit, since I was making this for just a few people.

Ingredients: (for my version)

• 1 lb shrimp, preferably small/medium (any size except those tiny salad shrimp will do)
• 1 Hass avocado (diced)
• 1 Florida avocado (diced)
• 1 medium shallot (finely minced)
• 1 tbsp. garlic (minced)
• 1 - 2 tsp. salt
• 1 - 2 tsp. black pepper
• 2 tsp. red chili flakes
• 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 - 3 medium tomatoes (chopped)
• 1/4 cup cilantro (minced)

Directions:

1. Cook shrimp using any preferred method (boiling, steaming, etc.)
2. Combine cooked shrimp with all other ingredients, being sure to mix well.
3. Shrimp salad can be eaten right away, or be put into the refrigerator to chill for several hours or overnight (*I prefer letting it sit to chill for a bit).  Either way, enjoy!

2 Weeks!

Woohoo!  Just about two more weeks, and I'll be moving into my dorm!

Surf & Turf

Finally got around to doing some actual cooking today.  Both of the recipes I used were from Cook Lisa Cook: more specifically, the Shrimp Salad and the Teriyaki Steak (although I did make slight modifications to each).  *I'll post pictures tomorrow.

EDIT: (8/7/11) Yikes!  I completely forgot about the pictures!  I'll definitely upload them...eventually.

Giveaway over at....

Just entered a FiberOne giveaway over at "Get Lucky."


EDIT (8/15/11): I ended up winning the giveaway, which not that many people entered.  Anyhow, I got my prize package in the mail a little under a week ago.  The pedometer is pretty cool, as is the iPod/iPhone arm band holder-thing.  The cereal however, was.... "eh" :\

T-shirt Quilt

Okay, I realize that this has absolutely nothing to do with birds, the kitchen, or birds being in a kitchen, but...

I've been working on a t-shirt quilt for about 4 months now - well, most of that time has been spent sorting through my old shirts (and a few "donated" by friends).  As of now, I have 60-something 6" x 6" squares cut, and am in the process of piecing them together, into rows of 11 squares (working on the 3rd row at the moment).

I'm thinking that the finished product will be somewhere between a full-size and queen-size quilt. So... Most likely 15 - 18 rows of 11 squares?  As much as I'd like to at least piece the blocks together before I head off for college, in reality, it'll definitely take at least until the end of the year (if not around this time next year).

Anyhow, here is a picture (taken quite a while ago) of the topmost row of t-shirt blocks (pieced together).

**Also, if anyone has any ideas of where I can get *extremely* affordable t-shirts, please let me know.

Solution... Well, Sort of...

Definitely not using Notes to publish new blog posts.  Period.  

I'm trying out an app called "RSS for Pages," which works decently.  The only gripe I have with this app is that while my posts do show up in proper form, they get sorted into a separate tab under the page's profile picture.  I need to click on said tab, and "publish" each post individually to the wall.  

Ideally, I would like something that does just directly posts blog updates onto the Facebook wall, as opposed to me doing this manually.  

Oh well, it's good enough for now.

Any Advice?

Attempting (for quite a while now) to "sync" my posts here to the page that I created on Facebook using the Notes app.  Now, after I paste in the URL for the RSS feed, I get a preview of what everything will look like.  This post aside, I only have 5 posts on this blog so far.  The two most recent ones show up perfectly fine in the preview.

However, the last three (a.k.a. the first three posts made on this blog) look kind of... funky.  The images for them show up; but instead of the text being displayed like it is in the preview of the two most recent posts, all I get is a bunch of broken coding...

Doe anyone have ideas on how to fix this?  Or possibly another method of publishing new blog posts to the page's wall?

All Thanks to Neopets

*Urg.*  I actually used to be mildly literate in html and css coding, thanks to plenty of time spent on... *don't laugh*... Neopets.  

Really.  

*Now I feel like the picture above after trying to decipher even the simplest of coding.

Long story short, each of the "petpages" had default layout/coding, based upon the "species" of that particular pet, that a user had to edit if they wanted it customized in any way.  There were also "user lookups" to be edited.  Oh, and "guild" (sort of like little online...er, clubs? gatherings?) layouts too.

If we wanted a box that was a certain size and color, the coding for that had to be done from scratch.  Should a user want an image to be moved to a different area on the page, he/she had to alter the coding - again, by hand.  Likewise, say I wanted an text link - yup, you guess it... I would have to write the coding myself.  

The only guides we had were basic tutorials on the Neopets website and templates on third party sites, the latter of which still required some rudimentary html knowledge.  Sure, it was annoying as heck if you were a beginner; but most people quickly learned the very foundations (and in some cases progressed to highly advanced) html coding and such.

>:| It's been at least 4 years since I've laid hands on any petpage or user lookup coding...

Turning the Other... Er, Cheek? *A moment from earlier today...

This is the sight that I'm met with 

when I greet my birds in the morning.

Best. Cookies. Ever.

These Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are one of the best cookies I've tasted.  The dough is a snap to put together, as is the assembly of the actual cookies.  Unfortunately, I can't take credit for these delicious morsels.  

Credit for this amazing cookie recipe goes out to Elissa of 17 and Baking, where this and numerous other wonderful recipes can be found.

..and a closeup shot.

And again, credit goes out to Elissa of 17 and Baking.

Smiling Spaghetti

Look closely and you'll surely see a smile in the plate of spaghetti and meatballs below:

The hidden "smile" was completely unintentional - I only noticed it after I took the picture.

This recipe is straightforward and quick - somewhere between 30 minutes and 1 hour of total prep/cooking time.

Ingredients:

     (MEATBALLS)

• 1/2 lb ground beef (85-15 or 90-20 works best)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1 egg (large)
• 1/2 - 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. thyme
• 1 tsp. rosemary 
• 1/4 cup cilantro (finely chopped)
• 1/4 cup romano cheese
• 2 tbsp (or thereabouts) oil

-----X-----

(SAUCE)

• 1 can crushed tomatoes
• 2-3 fresh tomatoes (medium "chop" using blender)
• 1/2 - 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 fresh basil leaves (or 1 1/2 tsp. dried)
• 1/2 tbsp. thyme
• 1 tbsp. rosemary
• 1 tbsp. red chili flakes
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic (minced or thinly sliced)

*INSTRUCTIONS*

1. Combine ingredients for meatballs.
2. Form meatballs using 2 tablespoon-sized scoops of meat mixture.  Set aside.
3. Heat 2 tbsp. oil in a large skillet/pan/large pot on medium-high heat.  Place meatballs in skillet (about 6 - 8 at a time) in order to get a golden brown sear on all sides.
4. Set aside seared meatballs.
5. In the same pot used to sear the meatballs, use an additional 2 tbsp. oil (medium - medium/high heat) to sauté garlic until oil achieves a garlicky aroma.
6. Add the tomatoes, followed by the salt, rosemary, thyme, red chili flakes, and basil.
7. Allow sauce to simmer (medium heat) for approximately 15 minutes, then add the meatballs.
8. Let meats and sauce simmer for an additional 15 to 30 minutes.
9. During the last 15 minutes of step 8, add spaghetti noodles to a pot of boiling salted water.
10. Once pasta, sauce, and meatballs are done, generously ladle sauce and meatballs over a plate of pasta.  Garnish with parmesan cheese and cilantro (or parsley) if desired.

Hi All

It's 2:00 a.m., and about half an hour ago, starting a blog sounded like a good idea to me.  Actually, I've been thinking about it for months, but never got around to doing anything - until now.

Birds in the Kitchen.

So where exactly did this name come from?  First off, I am the proud owner of two budgies, Bacci and Ciri.  Secondly, I immensely enjoy the time that I spend in my kitchen.  The two aforementioned items are the things I am most passionate about - my birds, and cooking (in that order) - hence how the name "Birds in the Kitchen" came about.

And with that, I leave you future readers and followers with a picture of one of my chief passions:

**WARNING: prepare for some intense cuteness.

Now that's a face that anyone could love!