more food...

As previously stated, I love food. For that reason, I have been cooking a lot more lately. Actually I think there are a few reasons for that. First of all, I watched Julie and Julia with one of my roommates. Not that it is the greatest movie ever, but it made me want to cook! Also, I have roommates. It is much more fun to cook when there are people who can enjoy the food you've made! (Plus I don't want them to think I'm a slob who survives off of like frozen meals or anything.) So I cook. ;)

I brought some fun stuff home from my time in Europe. Some couscous spices from Morocco, curry powder from Switzerland (not that curry has any relation to Swiss food at all), cinnamon from Morocco. And some delicious meal ideas from Spain.

I tried making a tortilla española, which is a typical Spanish dish. It's eggs, onions and potatoes. Pretty hard to mess up, right? Not for me. Its all about the heat-you have to let it sit and cook for a while, and if its too hot the bottom will burn before you flip it. Too low and it will never cook. So my first attempt didn't turn out all that great. Although it tasted good, it just didn't look real pretty. See the evidence.


I also used my Moroccan couscous spices. AMAZING. The couscous I had in Morocco was one of the best meals I think I've ever had. So much couscous. So many delicious veggies. And amazing chicken. So I tried to replicate it: I steamed some veggies, cooked some chicken with the spices, mixed some spices into the couscous (which I had made with chicken broth), then put it all together. I used zucchini, carrots, potatoes, green peppers, garbanzo beans and a little bit of onion. So good. Good thing the spices will last me the rest of my life, cuz I will definitely be making that again.

Next up I made some soup. I love soup. I also love the Pioneer Woman. So of course her cauliflower soup was amazing. I only made half the recipe, and it was still enough to feed me and my roommates for a few meals. I used more veggies than the recipe called for, since I had things I needed to use (zucchini, potatoes, carrots, corn). Also, Trader Joe's sells this soup veggie stuff ("mirepoix" is the technical term), that is genius. I have an irrational fear of onions. I don't like them anyway, but sometimes you just need a few in a soup. But I can't make myself chop one up. So this mix came with diced onion, carrot and celery. Perfect for soup. More perfect for not having to chop an onion yourself. Turned out delish!




What's next, you ask? Why, this is!