Saturday, January 2, 2010

Fun new dinners!

Last night I made a dinner that had really stuck out to me in one of my new Ina Garten cook books; her parmesan chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy.  I was a little bit worried becauseI'm never that good at cooking chicken for some reason.  Let's just say that this was a major confidence boost.  Me and G both really liked it a lot.


Plus, I made homemade gravy for the first time!  It wasn't as good as my mom's, but still good.  I also made some black eyed peas and spinach from my Moosewood book, which G ate so that was also a triumph.
 
I've been topping my nights off with hot cocoa.  Probably a good dessert choice for my new year's resolutions.



This morning I had apple cinnamon oatmeal.



After working out, I finished off the rest of the veggies from last night (maybe I could get him to eat them once, but there was no way that G was going near them again).



A little later I had a banana muffin.



Then, for some reason, we had the idea that the weather would be okay for a walk to Fell's Point.  This was probably a bad idea.  It was so cold out.  But I guess worth it for the food.  We went to BOP Pizzeria for lunch and I got a Greek salad.




They have really, really great pizza, but I just wasn't in the mood.  I had a bite of G's pepperoni-pepperoncini pizza and it was good as always.

Then what I was really waiting for!  Mr. Yogato!  It's probably a good thing that we aren't closer to it, because I would be trying to get all of the topping combos that I could possibly think of.  Today I got what I've been getting, though: tangy with kiwi, coconut, and chocolate jimmies.




Did I mention that I got a slow cooker for Christmakkuh from my momma?  And that we watched Julie and Julia?  And that after watching it, G decided that he wanted to try beef bourguignon?  Yes.  And lucky enough, there was a recipe in the little book that came with my slow cooker.  So all day, we had a nice smell in the apartment as it cooked.  The final result, with buttered noodles and bread:



This was good, but really, really rich.  I guess a lot of French food is like that.  Plus, I'm not a huge beef eater to begin with.  Maybe this is more appropriate for a bigger crowd and smaller portions.  But still, really flavorful and tasty!

Now I'm having my cocoa again.  I keep saying that I need to get around to the huge pile of clean laundry that needs to be folded.  Maybe tomorrow...


How do you get the motivation for chores that you hate doing?