Homemade and Semi-homemade Comfort Food

Posted on October 1, 2007 by chatty

As we get deeper into football season, we get on a roll with the pizza. Last night’s dinner:

Olive-oil based; Maple chicken sausage; crimini mushrooms sauteed; shredded parmesan sprinkled sparingly, for taste. We bought a sweet onion, but then forgot to saute them. Ah well. Nice and simple, the way a homemade pizza should be.

Tonight’s dinner: Salad first, then our favorite biscuits (heart-healthy) and organic roasted red pepper and tomato soup. One of those nice warm dinners that’s meant for the fall. While everyone loves the taste of a homemade meal, you can do a lot with packaged pantry helpers. Just keep an eye out on sodium levels and preservatives.

Print this page (no, don’t really)

Posted on September 29, 2007 by chatty

We recently purchased a new printer. It’s not just a printer, though. It is the HP Photosmart C6180 All-In-One Printer. It copies, scans, faxes. Slices, dices, chops. Oh, yes, it prints, too, of course.

Installing the software took a bit of time. The first mistake we made was connecting the device before turning on the laptop. The laptop was so confused it hurt. Unplugged, restarted, then plugged and all was good. Installed the software, and was able to print pretty much right away. The printing time is fast, relative to our old ink jet printer. I printed a one-page calendar created in Excel and it took just a few seconds (according to Amazon, printing time is 32 ppm. Not too shabby). Print quality is good, though I haven’t tried printing out an image yet.

My next experiment was scanning. I attempted to a few times and the printer (which, really isn’t a printer, buy sca-cop-fax-inter is too difficult to say. AIO for short). wouldn’t talk to the laptop. So, restart the laptop and suddenly everything is hunky dorry. Scanning quality is decent, for its purposes. Take a look:

Cake! What else would I show you? Our wedding cake. Don’t ask me what kind of cake it was because I can’t remember. Neither can the husband. Different tiers were different flavors, but that’s all I remember. But I digress.

So, scan quality is not terrific, but does its purpose.

HP software offers image editing but I probably won’t bother since I already own a couple of other ones. One of the cool things about the AIO is that you don’t require the PC to operate it. You can scan and save to a memory device (i.e. USB flash drive). You can insert a memory card from your digital camera, and the AIO accepts all sorts of cards, including CF (compact flash), which is what our old Canon PowerShot uses. Yay!

Initial verdict: I like it. It’s pretty intense, lots of features. Now that the initial installation is over I see it is fairly intuitive, as you’re able to control it either at the printer or from the laptop.

Haven’t tried the fax yet. That’s next up. Will report later.

Big bite brownies. Just plain big cookies.

Posted on September 29, 2007 by chatty

By far, this is the favorite dessert photo I’ve taken since I started this project:

Four “Big-Bite Brownies” stacked. Courtesy of Metropolitan Market and their fabulous “free with coupon” offer to Bryant shoppers. Look for yours in the mail! Except for E., who for some reason does not receive the coupon.

At one time they were called “Two-bite Brownies”. I don’t know what marketing maven decided to change it from two normal bites to one big bite.

Whatever the decision, it didn’t really change the flavor. They are good, but not overwhelming. I am more excited about getting the bargain than about the brownies themselves.

I picked up the brownies yesterday. Then, this morning, having forgotten we had brownies at home, I picked up a couple of cookies while at PCC after rowing. Of course, I remembered on the way home that I am trying to avoid cookies in the first place, nevermind that we had a small tub of brownies at home waiting for me. Ah well. Tough life.

One peanut butter chocolate chip cookie, and one ginger snap cookie. Both vegan, both from PCC, as I mentioned earlier.

I’ve had them before. I know they are gooood. I bought the PBCC for the husband. I personally enjoy the spicy molasses of the ginger snap (which is chewy, not crunchy, by the way).

Perfectly simple salmon

Posted on September 26, 2007 by chatty

My huge fan base has requested more photos of dinner, so I’ll oblige. I didn’t have the camera around for tonight’s dinner (though if you were to take a look at this pasta dish, you can get a sense of what we ate tonight).

Last night: Baked salmon seasoned with salt and pepper, a little bit of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. On the side, pear and gorgonzola ravioli; plus a garden salad with Metropolitan Market croutons, and dressed with Paul Newman Sesame Ginger Dressing (Low-Fat). The salmon was perfectly cooked, and tasted delicious. The husband purchased the fresh wild-caught variety.

Happy Autumn! Time for some cocoa.

Posted on September 24, 2007 by chatty

Oh what the heck. One more post about food. Tonight I whipped up some hot cocoa, one of our favorite cold-evening desserts. Usually we rely on the instant stuff, no sugar added.

Instead, today I combined sugar and dutch-processed cocoa, with water, milk and vanilla over the stovetop for some homemade goodness.

Just enough for two mugs of yummy chocolatey goodness, without the false sweeteners, and without the ginormous calories of a chocolate pie that we contemplated getting from the store tonight.

Pasta I gotcha

Posted on September 19, 2007 by chatty

Let me start by saying the husband has gotten used to me photographing nearly everything we eat.

Spaghetti with chicken and lemon; chunky mushrooms, fresh tomatoes (from the side garden) and shallots, sauteed in vermouth. Crusty bread drizzled with olive oil on the side. Simple but elegant.

The weather is beginning to turn here in Seattle. No Indian summer this year, although I sort of dressed like it was summer (wishing it’s summer doesn’t make it so) today. It’s a great feeling to come home to a warm and comforting meal like this one. Yum.

Breakfast for dinner, Part 2

Posted on September 17, 2007 by chatty

The husband claims he does not read the blog. So, how do you explain what we ate for dinner tonight?

Breakfast! Yum. Omelet made of ‘fake’ eggs; orange bell peppers; tomatoes (from the side garden); green onions. Chicken-apple sausages and lemon biscuits on the side. Yay!

Breakfast for dinner. And then some.

Posted on September 16, 2007 by chatty

By far one of my favorite dinners is … breakfast! Pancakes, or an omelet, biscuits, maybe some chicken sausage, if we’ve been good. In today’s Pacific Northwest magazine (Sunday Seattle Times), writer Matthew Amster-Burton writes a piece on BfD. The writer could have been in our kitchen, it seemed so familiar. The experiments, the search for perfection, all for the right waffle. Nice job.

Oh, and while I’m here I’ll sneak in a pic of a treat we had today, football day. Early on in my years with the husband (we’ve been together 8 years! married for 3), when I didn’t care much for the sport, or for what I ate, I looked forward to the array of snacks and meals the husband would concoct for the day. Sausage sandwiches, semi-homemade salsa or guacamole. Then I started getting into it myself: chili; chicken quesadillas; pizza. Now that I actually pay attention and sorta understand the game, the food is still good, but not the main point of the day.

Today was a special treat. We don’t ever go to fast food national chains. We probably go to Dick’s every 4 or 5 months, when the mood strikes.

Today the mood struck.

Dick's special with fries

That’s amore

Posted on September 12, 2007 by chatty

The husband presented a grand dinner for me to photo and discuss on the blog. Improved from a previous dinner presentation. First, lemon-pancetta biscuits. Again, the ‘double-fold’ method, with pancetta in the middle. Lemon zest and lemon juice flavor the biscuit dough. Light and fluffy, made from Heart-Healthy Bisquick. Parmesan cheese was baked atop the biscuit. Yum.

As for the pasta dish, as reported by the husband: Tomatoes, onions and pancetta was sauted, then wine (sake, actually) and butter was added. The sauce simmered, then parmesan was melted into it. It was a texture and flavor of a cream sauce, without a cream sauce. Rich, but not too rich.

In a word … dee-lish.

Dinner. Yum.

Posted on September 11, 2007 by chatty

Taking a break on cookies. Sort of overdosed, and therefore can’t really enjoy the goodness.

On another note, here is dinner. Sausage sandwiches: Italian chicken sausage with grilled onions and various condiments on a panino roll. On the side, baby dill pickles, potato salad: