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| All that new xanga crap confused me. Anyway, task at had. A liste of the day's accomplishments. Hopefully to increase exponentially with each following day.
40 Situps
25 squats
1 minute of varied leg lifts
25 push-ups
Boxed up N64 for eBay sale.
Decided to no longer actively pursue a relationship. Friendship only.
Filmed a Banquet for work.
Well, that sucks. My day looks pretty wasted, in retrospect.
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| The Day O' The Pirate, the 19th o' September, be upon us! Hoist the anchor, open the sails, and start tha' fightin'!
If any ah ye swabs can think up a fittin' dish for me harties, I be likin to hear about it afor the sun sets and be time ta end ye.
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| Just having returned from New York and California, I found myself a little discontented with my apartment, and felt I had to escape. I travel a relatively short distance, comparatively, to what may very well be my favorite residence : Daniel's Condo. It's a small, beautifully decorated condominium, mere miles from the Colosseum at University of Mississippi, in Oxford. Oxford is strangely different from Tupelo and surrounding cities, one important feature known to the town is the heavily trafficked 'Square' near the downtown area. Unlike other cities nearby, it gets a lot more bipedal attention due to this particular plot of land. It's also predominantly a business and law school, which I'm into. But, getting more to the point, I love being at Daniel's condo, and luckily, unlike most everyone I know, Daniel does not underestimate the importance of the right equipment in the kitchen. Ample counter space and high quality knives are but a few among the many delights it has to offer for a chef. The only improvement I could ask for is a gas range, which I'm sure he would like to have, as well. So, getting more to the point, and less about my admiration for his home, I like to try to cook for him more than most other people, because I feel like he appreciates cooking more than most of the people I deal with day to day. So, I rummaged around in the cabinets and refrigerator, which seemed horribly understocked after being in a very overstocked kitchen in California (seen here). I did happen across enough ingredients to make a proper meal, luckily. Something worth being proud of, I feel. I should have garnished it with the parsley I found, but forgot about it.
Click to satisfy your craving for massive imagery.
Chicken and Artichoke Pasta
Ingredients:
Three Chicken Breasts, cut into small cubes
Artichoke Hearts, quartered
One Yellow Onion, diced
Three Cloves Garlic, diced
Newman's Own Pasta Sauce with Peppers and Mushrooms.
Domäne Waschau (White Wine)
Ziti Pasta
Grated Parmesan Cheese
The preparation and procedures were simple, as they tend to be when making pasta. I began by sautéing the onions and garlic in a little garlic flavored olive oil. I added the artichoke hearts and let that cook for a few minutes before later adding the chicken and cooking it throughly. I didn't use many spices, as I have a tendency to do, as I just felt like keeping the dish simple, with the main idea behind it that I made it out of stuff I scrounged up. Besides, none of the spices I saw in the cabinet appealed to me. I did use fresh ground black pepper and kosher salt, of course. I also poured a few ounces of white wine in toward the end of the process.
At the same time, I heated the sauce in a small sauce pan and added a few ounces of wine. I generally prefer to make my sauces from scratch, but that would have proved much more difficult with the select set before me in the kitchen. So, I made do with what i had. In retrospect, I should have poured in more wine.
The rest is simple. Boil the pasta, drain, dish, add primary substances, sauce, and grate the cheese. And then off to enjoy. Daniel made a joke about just going to get greasy Mexican food instead, but he completely cleaned his plate when it was set before him. I'd like to consider that some form of success, though he could have just been very hungry. Dustin, as always, didn't really respond, but I've come to deal with that. Hopefully I can find a few people to eat my food that will actually give me some feedback sometime.
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| Seafood is by far my favorite kind of meat, but even with that as it is, I don't eat it nearly regularly enough. But I boosted some Talapia from Nate's freezer the other night when I left, and I put it to use today.
A mere five minutes on the flame and a little Carribean Jerk later, it started to look a little bit like this.
And taste a bit like awesome.
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| I've got a special treat for you today. I do so hope that you're aware that Fish is by far the most healthy meat product you can consume, as its fats are mostly liquid and it has vitamins never before seen in common terra-bound consumeables. Government health programs like MyPyramid suggest eating Fish at least two to three times a week. That said, and the fact that I like seafood probably more than any other variety, I've tried to include more of it in my diet any way I can, and if you're looking for a heatlhy, non-vegetarian or psudo-vegetarian diet, I suggest you do the same. But you're not here for my lecture on how to save your life, are you? I know what you want. So here, eat it already.
Alaskan Omelet
3oz Pink Salmon, Flaked
2 Eggs
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon Milk
1/4 Cup Shreaded Mozzarella Cheese
Tarragon, Dill, and Chives at your own discretion.
There's a trick to cooking eggs, and that is that a perfect texture is developed before the dish is even granted texture. Crack the eggs into a bowl and discard the shells. Add the Milk and however much of the herbs you're craving, just not too much. A little salt and pepper never hurts anything, unless you've got high blood pressure, in which case the salt will probably be a slow means to an end for you, if that's what you're looking for. Better to die from delicious salt than cigarettes, if you're looking to get away with suicide unnoticed. Anyway, after you've got your level of dilectability selected, there's a trick to wisking these eggs. As you do, you want to go at a raised angle, so that you pull the egg mixture out of the bowl and into the air. This traps air in the mix as it falls back down, and will result in a fluffy texture once cooked. Go at it for about two minutes to get the best results.
Before you go anywhere, turn your oven on to 375°F. Now, feel free to leave the house and forget about it.
Just so you know, I never measure my olive oil, no matter what I'm doing. I have no idea if I actually put a tablespoon in the skillet, or 2 teaspoons, or 1 Tablespoon and 1.5 teaspoons. The point is that you cover the skillet with a thin layer. Oh, and I know that most people use butter for breakfast foods, but quite frankly, I think butter is absolutely disgusting. It may have its place in baking, where the slight olive taste would unsatisfactory, but that's the end of it as far as I am concerned. So, as with above, softer fats = longer life. So, more oil, less butter. Now, heat that crap in an oven safe skillet to medium / medium-high. Pour the eggs in and swish them around until the bottom sets and they don't really feel like going too far. Add in the salmon on one half, and the cheese on the other half. Or put them on top of each other, whatever you fancy.
Next, you are to remove the skillet from the stove and place it on the top-most rack of the oven. Give it a few minutes to cook until the eggs are nice and set and the salmon is looking friendly. This is really up to you, and how stiff you like your eggs / fish. When you're satisfied, which I was after about five minutes, pull it out and then flip one half (preferable the non-fishy side) over the other for that folded omelet shape we all love so much, and if you want to brown it a bit, throw it back on the stove. if not, take a plate and hold it over the skillet (weilding the skillet with an oven mit of some source, of course, and invert the omelet onto the plate. You've arrived at completion. Only one step is remains.
Enjoy it. That's a step of the recipe, so things aren't going to work out properly if you don't. Best of luck to you.
You'll need an oven safe skillet if you're to make this the same way I did. Why? Because the Salmon cooks better/faster if you just put the whole thing in the oven, and it gives it a nice, subtly crisp texture. If you don't want to go the extra mile, it's not going to hurt my feelings.
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