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.