July has arrived and the countdown has begun

You know things are getting bad when this is your dinner:


Mac and cheese, meatloaf, and cabbage. It's faster than eating out, which is a big plus when it seems like there is so much more to cover and so little time left to absorb all the material.

To celebrate making it to this final stretch--the month of the bar!--I made almond float for dessert, which is almond jello and fruit cocktail. I consider it my reward for suffering through the lousy corporations lecturer who couldn't enunciate:


As expected, the posts are becoming more erratic, but it's all part of the process of documenting this experience.

French Toast

Saturdays are the best because I get to sleep in and eat something other than cereal for breakfast. A loaf of bread is a lot to go through for one person (I usually freeze half), but french toast with maple syrup and powered sugar is my preferred method of gobbling up those extra carbs:


Too bad I finished up the strawberries earlier this week.

Kale Soup = Chevron with Techron

The study schedule has picked up (spending the weekend in Chicago didn't help) and I seem to have less time to cook for myself and even less time to blog about it. But even if I'm going to go the mac and cheese route for the night, it's always nice to have a healthy side dish in the fridge to get some veggies in my system. And what better veggie than kale:


Kale is the forgotten cousin of collard greens. It scores high marks in the looks department--gorgeous green with deep purple highlights--and it's healthy to boot. I made a big pot of kale soup with chicken broth, potatoes, and chopped up Trader Joe's sausages for a fresh appetizer:


I consider kale the "Chevron with Techron" of vegetables--this fibrous leafy green will keep your body running smoothly and clean out the other junk that's accumulated in there. Haha. Gross.

A First Foray Into Asian Cooking

Yesterday's dinner was an adventure. For a long time, I've been meaning to make pad thai and veggie spring rolls. My friend Sam makes a fabulous pad thai, and I've watched him do it at least twice. Last night I finally did it. I shared with some friends, who all seemed to go home full and happy.

The first obstacle has always been finding and venturing out to an Asian market. I had no clue where to go. But, the internet is a wonderful thing - a quick Google search turned up a large, well-reviewed Asian market only a few miles away from my house. I called up my friend Jenn, who has a penchant for visiting every sort of international market ever, and off we went. We spent an hour in the unfamiliar territory, but eventually we had filled my basket with rice stick noodles, spring roll wrappers, tamarind sauce, bean sprouts and numerous other things - even some mochi for dessert.

The recipe I used came from Mark Bittman's cookbook, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (a book that I highly recommend - I've tried several recipes, like the mushroom risotto that appeared a couple of blog entries ago, and have yet to be disappointed). The key seems to be to have all the ingredients ready to go before you heat up your wok... sigh, okay, fine. I don't have a wok so I used a skillet. But anyway, I had read a tip online somewhere that all the sauce ingredients should be mixed together ahead of time, because measuring two teaspoons of three different ingredients once the noodles hit the pan is a bad idea. I'm glad I did. The end product was pretty good, though I would have double the amount of sauce I had for the amount of noodles I had.

Meanwhile, my dinner guests were busy rolling spring rolls. Spring roll assembly is fun, I think and my guests seemed to agree. They consisted of rice vermicelli, chinese cucumber, carrot, cilantro and mint rolled up in a rice wrapper. I also mixed up a sauce that involved soy sauce, coconut milk, lime juice, chilis, coriander... and maybe a couple of other things as well.

I gravely overestimated the amount of rice noodles I would need to make four (sizeable) portions of pad thai, so tonight's dinner made use of them. Just a quick pepper and mushroom stir fry served over the noodles.

Leftovers

I once read an article on the airplane about a personal chef who was so good at using leftovers that her clients never even noticed they were eating iterations of meals they had enjoyed only days ago. This creative resourcefulness really appealed to me.

When cooking for one person, it's easy to go overboard, especially with something like spareribs:


It took me a few meals to make a dent in the rib pile and when I started getting rib overdose, I turned the leftovers into pork fried rice:


After a full day of rote memorization of black letter law, cooking dinner can be a fun and satisfying (both to my taste buds and my wallet) creative outlet.

To Amie, so long as the mushrooms are still good

Tonight's dinner was thrown together from various things in the kitchen - I'm putting off actual grocery shopping until I get back in town from visiting my parents this weekend. I had some mushrooms left over from last week's mushroom risotto, so I sliced them up and sauteed them in olive oil and water (white wine works better, but I did not have any open, and being alone in an apartment with a full bottle of wine when I should be studying sounded like a bad idea) with a bit of garlic, salt and pepper.

I also boiled some pasta - pesto tortellini - and tossed that with olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano and basil. I then added the mushrooms and topped with freshly grated parmesan, which was also leftover from the risotto. Mmm...

To Dre, but if the grill doesn't work, then to Mom

After property law review today, I was also inspired to cook beef.  Rather than stew, I felt like making carne asada, a thin steak that goes well in Mexican dishes.  Unfortunately, my propane tank ran out of fuel tonight, so the grill was out of commission.  I'd already prepped everything... seasoned the steak, pre-boiled the corn, sliced cheese.  I was about to reluctantly pull out a frying pan when my mom suggested we use the broiler.  Ah, the usefulness of someone with indoor cooking insights!  We did the steak under the broiler (about 4-5 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the meat), and finished off the corn that way too (just turn the cooked corn until it is golden brown - adds great flavor).  Meanwhile, I buttered the bottoms of four corn tortillas, layered the tops with cheese, and fried them on the stove.  The result: cheesy, buttery tortillas covered with thin, tender strips of steak, and topped with salsa and sour cream.  And, of course, we had the delicious roasted corn too.  What a difference direct heat can make!

"To Megan, so long as she doesn't overcook the beef"

During today's property lecture about conveying land to one's heirs, I couldn't stop thinking about dinner tonight: Chinese tomato beef. The recipe has been passed on from one generation to the next. If I had to pick an estate, the recipe would probably be a fee simple determinable from my grandma, the grantor, stating, "To Megan, so long as she doesn't overcook the beef."

I began by marinating the meat in soy sauce, garlic, and a pinch of sugar and salt. Ginger, the magic ingredient, is in the upper left hand corner:


Then, I boiled 4 tomatoes, peeled off the skin, and chopped them up:


I combined the meat, tomatoes, and some extra chicken broth and tofu (from the protein noodle soup from a previous post). Normally, my grandma would use cornstarch to thicken the broth, but I've always preferred it watery. And I don't own cornstarch.


Finally, I spooned the mixture over rice and enjoyed: