Happy Friday!

I can't believe the week has already come to an end! It's not that I don't look forward to the weekend, it's just where did all that time go? I think my one too many extracurricular activities has gotten me into a routine that makes the week fly by with a blink of an eye. I didn't really have any real cooking adventures this week as I decided I would try Taco Tuesdsay in the OC. We went to Taco Mesa in the City of Orange. While I was excited to see that they had quite a selection of $1 tacos, I was a little disappointed as they over saturated their meet in sodium and grease. Le sigh. I shall find a good taco place soon!

Here's to the weekend!
- Seeing my familia
- Planning my Big Bear and Oregon trip (only 20 some days left till we go)
- Resting it up!

Hope you have a fabulous one ;).

Summer fruit lovin'

Last summer, I went on quite a strawberry kick after we went strawberry picking. This year is no different. Instead of picking them from the patch, I bought the four pound box at Costco. Note to self, one should never buy food/fruits at Costco for a household of two. With this box, I made a few strawberry banana smoothies, ate a ton of them as a lunch snack and kept thinking of ways to incorporate them into a baked good. I was planning on making jam but decided that it would be of great use on a fruit tart. I was researching the variety of recipes there are on the web and came across Paula Deen's recipe. While I was ready to make her recipe, I found that I didn't have enough time or the energy to gather some of the items she requested (about ten sticks of butter and a can of limeade). Instead, I went my own way on this recipe. That is quite the leap for me as I don't usually like to stray from recipes. I get anxiety as I fear that it might come as a huge goop of something people don't want to eat. That would be a shame to toss away something that could have been edible. On to my version of the fruit tart (with bits and pieces of ideas from other sites):

Ingredients:

- Fresh fruits (kiwi, strawberries, nectarines, plums, blueberries and more)

- Apricot jam

- Frozen pie crust

- Cream cheese

- Sugar

Directions:

1. Prepare the pie crust as directed on the box.

2. Allow the pie crust to cool after baking. As it cools off, cut round fruits into slices and place them on the side.

3. Take about 1/2 cup of cream cheese and mix in 3 tbsp of sugar. Keep stirring until the sugar is mixed in really well.

4. Spread the cream cheese mixture on the pie crust.

5. Arrange the fruit on top of the cream cheese mixture as you like it.

6. Take about 1/4 cup of apricot jam and half 1/4 cup of water and simmer it on medium low until the jam starts to become liquidy. If the jam is still separated from the water, take a spoon and whisk the water and jam together until it combines. Once it's well mixed, take a brush and brush the jam mixture on top over the fruit. Voila! Enjoy :)

Other accomplishments this weekend:

I made a birthday banner that I can use year round for everybody's birthday. I had a blast going to Jo-Anns to pick out the fabric though it was quite a difficult choice to make.

Being put to use outside at the bbq birthday party we hosted!

I went to a really great flea market in town to see some furniture that could country-fy my home to change it from the modern home it is today. I was so glad that I didn't carry more than 20 dollars in cash or else I would have gone home with more than I could handle. What I had in mind was a wagon for my garden, a pitcher to hold my fresh cut flowers and new vintage type furniture. I went home with a great wooden red wagon (to be pictured later), a pitcher and a picnic suitcase. All of these great finds added up to $12! Woo hoo!

Pitcher in use :D with my to be made table runner underneath it.

Here's to more crafty weekends to come!

Holy smokes...

It's been about 8 months since I last posted. I'm quite disappointed in myself for not following through with my goal of blogging at least once a month. Well it's time to move on. No time to dwell. There's plenty of time for me to start blogging again and I'll start with today. I've been pretty busy this summer - moving into a new place/city, taking the time to make it a home, finding ways to make new friends and starting a new job. Now that I've taken care of a majority of these tasks, I can start focusing on taking pictures of my dishes, posting my recipes and writing about my other interests. I've become quite interested in sewing, reading more blogs, gardening, building and decorating. Hopefully, you'll start to see some posts about the small projects I'm working on. I'm so fixated on food that it's time to start releasing that energy/motivation to other areas such as crafting which I haven't shared much of on this blog. Here's a preview of one of the projects I'm going to start working on:

I'm going to make you proud Martha Stewart!

The quest for 100 soups continues...

The winter here has been a quite harsh this season. It's been so cold that I actually use the space heater, wear my Snuggie (don't judge), wear socks to bed (usually don't), layer myself in three or more blankets and I have no urge to go out let alone go outside (what can I say, I have sensitive skin). The best remedy to get through the Winter blues is by making more soup. So far this year, I've made three. This is quite the accomplishment considering hat we are only on day 13 in 2011. Let's hope that this momentum continues throughout the year. Anyway, I don't know why I made this soup especially since I'm not the biggest fan of tomatoes. Oddly enough, I do have a soft spot in my heart from tomato bisque,V8 and salsa. Tomato bisque and grilled cheese sandwiches with sourdough bread ... I'm in heaven. This definitely is the COMFORT meal of the month!

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup (6-8 servings)

From Ina Garten

Ingredients

- 3 lbs ripe plum (aka Roma) tomatoes cut in half lengthwise

- 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp olive oil

- 1 tbsp salt

- 1 1/2 tspn black pepper

- 2 cups chopped yellow onions (about 2 onions)

- 6 garlic cloves, minced

- 2 tbsp unsalted butter

- 1/4 tspn crushed red pepper flakes

- 1 (28 ounce) canned plum tomatoes with their juice (I used regular diced tomatoes in a can)

- 4 cups fresh basil leaves

- 1 tspn fresh thyme leaves (I left this out)

- 1 quart chicken stock or water ( I used chicken stock)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Toss the tomatoes with1/4 cup of olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread them out on a baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes.

3. 15 minutes before the tomatoes are done roasting, saute the onions, garlic, 2 tbspn of olive oil, butter and red pepper flakes in a large stockpot for 10 minutes over medium heat. Once th onions start to turn brown, add the canned tomatoes, basil, thyme and chicken stock.

4. Remove the roasted tomatoes from the oven and add it to the pot. Also add any liquid that is left on the baking sheet into the pot.

5. Bring the pot to a boil and allow it to simmer uncovered for 40 minutes.

6. Take the soup off the food mill and use the coarsest blade. I don't have such equipment so just took a fork and stabbed all the tomatoes until they were broken up into smaller chunks. It made the soup less chunky but still chunky enough. You can probably also put it in a blender.

7. Get some tasty sourdough bread and American cheese and grill it on the skillet. Cut it diagonally across and serve it with a bowl of soup. Sandwiches taste better when they are cut diagonally :) Really!

Enjoy!

Review:

This soup is so good!!! The one thing downside of it is that it is a bit acidic. It lingers in your mouth just a little after sipping the soup and I think this is because of the tomatoes' acidity. Not really sure how one can make it less acidic but I would suggest eating more bread or grilled cheese sandwiches because more carbs are awesome anyway.

Updates on my goals:

- I baked for the first time in forever. I didn't even break out the whisk this Christmas! Oh the madness! The recipe is from Joy the Baker. If you go to her link (below), please excuse my poor decorating skills here. She did an amazing job with all the sprinkles and perfect glaze. You must know, I am just learning how to make glaze. :l

Chocolate Glazed Baked Doughnut Muffins

- Lethal legs class numero uno kicked me in the butt today but I shall survive! Lunges and squats are not a girls best friend.

- I ran for ten minutes last night. Yes 10. That's good enough for me :)

Life's good!

Dear Lazy,

This is a new year. With a new year usually comes the new years resolutions. So cliche but much needed. Here are your goals:

- Blog more
- Bake more
- Cook more for yourself
- Enjoy your final months in San Diego with friends
- Enjoy your new home with your fabulous boyfriend, family and friends (who will hopefully realize that San Diego is only a hop skip and a jump away)
- Stop and smell the roses.
- Stop and dance when you feel like it
- Run a 5k and become more active (closely getting there with my Lethal Legs class)

Remember, you can do it.

Love,
Your new and improved lazy self ;)

For my vegetarian friends

To my Italian food loving vegetarian friends,

Have I got a recipe for you. As a once a week pasta type of girl, I've been wanting to branch out and try different Italian recipes that don't include the repetitive gesture of boiling angel hair and adding Barilla sauce. I've finally ventured out and made lasagna. It's not just any kind of lasagna though, it's butternut squash lasagna. Since it's squash season, there is plenty of butternut squash in the stores and farmers markets and recipes to go with that. Daniel forwarded a recipe from his company Health and Fitness newsletter that uses butternut squash instead of meat in a lasagna dish. Not only is it meat free, it's also healthy! Yay!

Another inspiration for making this recipe came from the book "Alone in the kitchen with an eggplant" that I'm currently reading. As I mentioned earlier last month, I want to read more books about other people's adventures in cooking. This book is actually composed of many short essays from people just like you and me. They are people who work, who go to school, who are married or who are single. They write about how they cook for themselves and try their best to cook for themselves when their significant other is gone or they don't have the company of their friends. Sounds strange that an entire book could have essays relative to cooking for yourself but as I was reading it, I said to myself "I can totally relate." When you're home alone, do you really put the effort into cooking a a nice meal for yourself or do you pull out the canned goods and PB & J? I put the effort into cooking only if I'm entertaining someone other than myself - I definitely fall into the category of keeping it simple when I'm alone (I've had countless quesadillas/grilled cheese sandwiches/ham and cheese sandwiches alone). Sad sad sad. After reading a few of these essays, I was motivated to cook something nice for myself for once. I was going to put something together that would take time, not just 30 seconds of microwaving. Alas, this is the reason why the lasagna recipe is on my blog. Ta-da!

Ingredients (enough to make 2 lasagnas with 6 servings each - I ended up making only one lasagna though so cut this in half if you want that):

- Cooking spray

- 3 cups chopped onions (I would use a quarter less because it's a little too onion like)

- 10 cups fresh spinach

- 3/4 cup shredded sharp provolone cheese (I used jack)

- 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (I omitted this)

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

- 2 eggs

- 1 (15 ounce) carton fat-free ricotta cheese

- 3 cups diced and peeled butternut squash (Trader Joes has it already prepared)

- 6 cups marinara sauce

- 12 oven-ready lasagna noodles

- 1 cup fresh Parmesan cheese grated (the smell is so intense)

Directions:

- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat a large pot on medium-high heat with some cooking spray. Add the onions. Saute until it is tender.

- Add spinach, saute until the spinach wilts. Turn the heat off and set the pot aside.

- Combine provolone, parsley (omitted), salt, pepper, eggs and ricotta cheese in a large bowl.

- Place squash in a microwave safe bowl. Cover and cook on high for 5 minute or until tender with a fork.

- Coat the bottom and sides of an 8 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Spread 1/2 cup of marinara sauce in the bottom of one prepared dish. You are going to start layering ingredients on top of each other.

-Arrange two noodles over sauce (if you cut the recipe in half, adjust the noodles accordingly).

- Spread one cup of the cheese mixture over the noodles.

- Arrange 1 1/2 cups squash over the cheese mixture.

- Spread 3/4 marinara sauce over the squash.

- Arrange 2 noodles over the sauce.

- Arrange 1 cup cheese mixture over the noodles.

- Arrange 1 1/2 cups of the onion/spinach mixture over cheese mixture.

- Spread 3/4 cup of marinara over the spinach mixture.

- Add 2 noodles over the sauce.

- Spread 1 cup sauce evenly over noodles (if you see too much sauce, you might want to cut back).

- Sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese. Begin the same process for the second dish.

- Cover the pan with foil.

(You will notice that there might be more ingredients left on the side than in the dish. You can eyeball it and try to add more ingredients and layer any way you want. The directions are just providing some guidelines.)

- Bake for 30 minutes covered and then 30 minutes uncovered. 60 minutes total.

Enjoy!!! Sorry no final product photos because I ate it. LOL. :D

To come -

Slow cooker recipes (I got a slow cooker - one of the coolest birthday presents ever! Thanks Fran!)

Thanksgiving side dishes - I'm actually going to make them from scratch as I only have to feed 5 people :)

Sweetened Quesadillas

Two years ago, my friends got me an awesome gift for my birthday - tickets to see Jason Mraz in LA. Before going to the show, we wanted to have dinner and I called my friend who lives in LA to ask her what restaurant we should check out. She mentioned this cute little place called Cha Cha Chas. This place is known for its sangrias and interesting twist on Latin foods. While browsing the menu there, Daniel and I saw something that we just had to try. It sounded so different, so interesting and a little bit weird. It was their guava and goat cheese quesadilla. It was SO tasty! I loved the combination of the tart- like cheese with something so sweet - the guavas. The combination was like heaven on your pallet. So there is a reason why I'm talking about this quesadilla that I ate about two years ago. I went to the Irvine farmer's market this weekend and bought myself some fresh goat cheese that traveled all the way from Mojave, CA. The vendors infused the goat cheese with garlic, chives and different flavors but we ended up taking home the cucumber flavored one. It's so refreshing you can just eat it by the spoonful! Anyway, I had plenty of tortillas left over and goat cheese that I thought "Hey why not make some of the those fruity little quesadillas?" I went to Bristol Farms and bought figs. I couldn't remember that Cha Cha Chas actually used guavas and kept thinking I ate fig and goat cheese. Well, as I went online to see if there was a recipe I could use, I found out that the ingredient was indeed guava and not fig but I had three figs now so I had to use them. No biggie! I've come to terms with substituting things in recipes because sometimes everything is not available (guavas are not in season right now anyway). Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
- Goat cheese (I used fresh goat cheese but you can use those prepackaged logs in the store)
- Flour tortillas
- Figs or guavas

Directions
- Take the back of your spoon and spread the goat cheese evenly onto one half of the tortilla.
- Cut open the figs and scoop out the flesh and spread it with the back of your spoon on top of the goat cheese. It will become mushy together but that's how you want it.
- Fold the tortilla in half and place it on the skillet. Heat it to your liking. I like it crispy and slightly brown.

That's it! Even though I didn't use guavas, the figs were still sweet enough to give it a lightly sweetened taste. I think next time I'll have to scoop more of the flesh out and make my tortilla more pink on the inside. Since guavas have a bit of a stronger taste than figs, I would highly recommended doing the guava version since it'll give a sweeter fruitier taste. In one tortilla, I use whole cut figs, the other I squished the figs into jam. :)

So the quesadillas were just an appetizer for my dinner last night. The main course was mahi mahi and whole wheat cous cous. I marinated the mahi mahi with a pesto and garlic chili paste that I bought at another farmer's market so I didn't make it myself (therefore no recipe). It was so tasty! I tried just one fish fillet with the marinade and the other I left plain with just some pepper and lime juice. I placed it on the grill and in the mean time, I made this aioli sauce that was on the fish package from Trader Joe's. I really like garlic and sometimes mayo, even though it's not healthy, so this was something nice to try on the fish. I can't entirely remember the recipe but I believe it was one part mayo (tbsp), one part lemon juice, some pepper and small piece of garlic (chopped up). Use a spoon and just really whip up the mayo with the liquid and then add the two last ingredients. Make sure that the garlic is chopped up finely or else you'll be biting into big chunks. Bon appetit!