most of the week sort of self-destructed

mardi gras traditionally means pancakes, so i made these buttermilk pancakes, although i mixed in frozen berries instead of bananas. although i plan to give up meat for lent, so perhaps i should technically be eating bacon or fried chicken. or not think about them at all.

i then sort of fasted on ash wednesday, which is to say, i didn't really fast at all. i had half a bran muffin and apple cider for breakfast, then yogurt and a bran muffin and a half for lunch, then after services, had beans and rice and bread and hummus. on a side note, tribe 40 spices hummus is really good.

trying for once a week now...

sunday night, after a trip to the store, made mashed potatoes with italian sausage and onions. i suspect i'm buying meat since i'm planning to go vegetarian for lent, beginning march 1st.

i also made this cake (with vanilla extract, since i don't have cash to just burn) with the accompanying oranges. mmm.

on monday, i was inspired to cook eggplant, for i believe what is the first first time. aww. i made this, more or less, (sans the wine and bay leaves and lemon peel) with the leftover italian sausage and it was pretty awesome. i think the trick to eggplant, for me at least, is to cook it into oblivion.

then nothing of note happened until saturday morning, when i amde bran muffins using the recipe on the back of the box. they were lighter and fluffier than the ones i made before, and probably better? richer, due to buttermilk, i think.

maybe this should be a weekly post, but i'd probably forget about sunday and monday

tuesday, i sort of made this soup. it was alright. i used dry kidney beans, soaked while i was at work, and that may have been a mistake. i also need to figure out how to use spices.

then i made this shepherds pie, sort of. used stew meat, not thinking how long it would take to get the meat semi-tender. also, threw in peas, but i should have done that at the last minute. and maybe diced tomatoes would have been good. well, that lasted 4 meals. then on friday i had nothing, so i made stove top stuffing! and brocolli and pan-fried tofu.

i've also been making refridgerated and frozen cookies from before, and they're still crumbly, as cookies are wont to be.

cold and snowy...

...which means i've been drinking a lot of tea and hot cider, and hot chocolate, although that turned out to be too rich for my tastes.

a friend from chicago was visiting yale, so i drove to new haven to see her and we went to caffe adulis which had eritrean food, which seems very similar to ethiopian food, although with many many lentil dishes, as far as i could tell. then went to coldstone, where i had oreos and rainbow sprinkles mixed into sweet cream ice cream. i was going for a variation of my pierce dining hall days (the same, but with vanilla yogurt usually instead of ice cream) but it was really too rich. which meant i stole my friend's lemon sorbet with raspberry jam.

also made pain au son (bran bread) from home baking, and it seems pretty excellent. i would make it again, maybe with sunflower seeds and those little yellow seeds that were in the bread at pierce. (hmm. i didn't mean to be this nostalgic for my college dining hall of all places.) amaranth perhaps? or maybe millet, but this seems larger and, um, bird food.

i also defrosted the pizza dough from a long while back and made onion and mushroom and diced tomato pizza. diced tomato was good...i perhaps should have sauteed the mushroom first though.
and then i made these cookies, and it seems i'm fated to make incredibly crumbly cookies for the rest of my life. they looked nothing like the picture, but i'm freezing some and maybe that helps.

finally on monday, i made mapo tofu, which i love.

i should update more since i really don't remember what i eat

lessee. i made thai red curry with brocolli and peas and chicken, which was good but too thin and very spicy. i made these cookies and the previously mentioned rice muffins to send to my sister. the cookies turned out better (due to more butter and more sugar, i guess?) than the first incarnation, but almost too buttery now. using parchment paper seemed to work well also.
also made quesadillas and beans and rice earlier this week.
oh, i ordered pizza from vas' pizza place down the street. it was just ok. not enough cheese. and i realize that i can't stand canned mushrooms.