Homemade Indian & Chinese foods

Homemade veggie curry - chickpeas, cauliflower, spinach, potatoes, peas and carrots over basmati rice. Delicious!

Here's what you need to make homemade fried rice. Leftover, cold rice (don't use warm rice, it will turn to mush), soy sauce, garlic, green onions, eggs, hot pepper oil.


And here's what you need for homemade eggrolls. This is kind of labor intensive but SO GOOD.



YUM!

Oscar Viewing Party

We recently hosted our second annual Academy Award viewing party. Basically, we got tipsy and watched the red carpet fashions and had dinner. We dressed up and broke out the table linens and nice dishes. It was fancy!

Best salad ever - homemade bacon bits, blue cheese, romaine, tomatoes, and homemade balsamic dressing.

Special for Connor - cheesy garlic bread.


Chicken wings! My dad made these, and they were delicious. He deep fried the wings in his ginormous turkey fryer and then coated them in sauce and let them warm in a crock pot.


Dinner! Steak, corn casserole muffins, and roasted potatoes and veggies.

The BEST sandwiches ever made!

Last weekend, I had occasion to make sandwiches for a large number of hungry musicians. I also made pasta salad and cookies, but I forgot to get pictures of either. The sandwiches were definitely the highlight of the lunch and I think that the pictures speak for themselves!


Fixins! Bacon that I fried that morning, ingredients for a homemade vinaigrette, leaf lettuce, turkey, ham, salami, sandwich pepperoni, stem tomatoes... YUM

Here's a little secret of mine for sandwiches... I slice the tomatoes thinly and sprinkle with a little sea salt. It draws out the flavor and dries up a little of the moisture.

Provolone, bacon, ham, and turkey topped with tomatoes and leaf lettuce tossed with vinaigrette.

Italian sandwiches - ham, sandwich pepperoni, salami, tomatoes, lettuce, and vinaigrette.

Tony Drinks a Juice Box

Here's Tony, drinking an orange flavored Capri Sun. He's also eating a slice of salami. Our friend, James, swears by the orange Capri Suns and says that they are the best out of all of the flavors. Connor tried one and said that it was initially very sweet but that wore off quickly and it became very tasty. He still prefers the fruit punch flavor for it's floral bouquet and peppery finish. (Okay, I made that last sentence up... OR DID I?)

it's the big show!

I almost feel bad posting these pictures. My Thanksgiving meal is so incredible that all others pale by comparison. I am truly sorry that I couldn't share this meal with each and every one of my loyal readers.

I can't give away any of my secrets, so I am posting pictures only without any details regarding the actual, super-special, very delicious recipes.

Tony set up the bar area. He did a nice job. When it comes to seasonal decorating, I skip fall decor and go straight in to Christmas flair.

Asparagus, mashed potatoes

Turkey, brown sugar glazed brussels sprouts and baby carrots, cheesy potatoes, stuffing, rolls, mac & cheese. not pictured: corn casserole

I shit you not, my brother actual wept with joy during dinner. It was that good! (he was actually just rubbing his eyes for a second, but I would like to think that he was crying with happiness)

It was a great Thanksgiving. Even better than the meal was spending the evening with our family.

A huge thanks to my mom for bringing the pumpkin pie, corn casserole and brussels and carrots. Big ups to Mandy for the cheesy potatoes. Thank you to my mother-in-law for the gluten free pumpkin pie and homemade apple pie.

Some food pictures that i just found

Tony loves him a breakfast sandwich (or two). These are egg, cheese, and bacon on whole wheat and were made by yours truly (me).


Cheese pizza with whole wheat crust.



Whole wheat pita pizza with ricotta and marinara. I was starving when I made this and got impatient waiting for it to bake. I took it out too early. It was still good but not great.

Food from last week

We ordered lunch from Plank's on Parsons Avenue while at work on Friday. This pizza was good, but not like I remember it. The crust was really sweet. Not in a bad way, but the sweetness was a little distracting.

This is a white pizza that I made on Thursday. Connor was fascinated that I had cracked the secret code to Papa John's cheesesticks... I didn't tell him that the secret recipe involves only pizza dough, garlic butter, mozzarella cheese, and provolone cheese. I would prefer to maintain the air of mystery.

Yummy.... Chicken and cheese quesadilla with spicy salsa and a whole wheat tortilla.

Not to brag or anything, but I make really awesome pizza. Here's a ricotta, provolone, and pesto pizza with crushed red peppers.

Michelle Versus Super Killer Hot Sauce at Roosters - 05.03.2009

This is my new favorite breakfast. An apple, a banana, and a big glass of water are surprisingly filling.

Later in the day, we went to Rooster's. We usually go to the Rooster's on Henderson Road or the one in German Village.  This time we went to the West Broad Street location. A couple notes about this location:

• Our waitress sucked
• I can't put my finger on why, but most of the patrons at this location were a little creepy
• There seemed to be a large gathering of people sitting at the bar and various tables specifically to watch Sunday's new episode of America's Funniest Videos. Is there really a weekly AFV meetup at this Rooster's? Odd, very odd
• They don't have a Sunday liquor license, only a beer license

Blue Moon and a Corona

Salad... Rooster's homemade house dressing is really good. It's a red dressing that is sweet and a little spicy. 

Ian got his usual - 4 chicken fingers with no sauce

Connor ordered bone-in wings and had a speed eating competition against his dad, only his dad didn't participate. That didn't deter Connor from talking trash and taunting his dad while they ate. Connor finished all 5 wings in record time. Tony was disqualified from the competition for eating only 8 out of 10 wings. 

I decided to up the heat level and ordered Super Killer sauce on my grilled chicken fingers instead of Killer sauce. Super Killer sauce is the spiciest that they offer and I expected it to be nearly too hot to eat. Surprisingly, it wasn't as hot as I had anticipated. Don't get me wrong, it was spicy as hell just not as spicy as I expected. I broke out in a mild sweat and my nose ran a little, but I had no problem conquering the Super Killer sauce.