Cooking challenge #2 - Try something new!

God Jul ladies! I hope that everyone had an amazing holiday and are ready to cook up a storm in the New Year!! I know it's still a busy time of year and you might not have the luxury of being in your own kitchen, so feel free to jump in on these challenges at a later date, but just in case you're bored and looking for something to do, I'm going to continue posting.

This week's challenge is to cook with an ingredient you've never used. Maybe you've seen your grandma use it, or you've had your eye on it in the grocery store...or maybe there's a really pretty bush outside with some berries...oh wait.  That's a bad idea. Don't do that. 

We just received a mystery vegetable from our CSA and I'm planning on figuring out what it is soon...they are covered in dirt so it really could be anything: Reese's peanut butter cups. Orange eggplants. Lemon cake. Ryan Gosling. (I'm a terrible guesser. My mom once wrapped a Rubik's cube and I thought it was a super soaker. Or a pogo ball. What a sad Christmas it was until I realized how AWESOME Rubik's cubes were. Plus, it far exceeded the previous year's gift of a calculator. Though, it was a TI-83 PLUS. Super sweet.) 

(...Mom, if you're reading this, I'm just joking. Seriously, I was really really spoilt with My Little Ponies, Cabbage Patch Dolls, Glow Worms, Pound Puppies, Skip Its, and Popples....Love you!)

Lots of love from Uppsala, I miss you all

xoxoxoxoo

Cooking challenge #1 results - Cheese. Eggplant Parmesan

Inspired by one of the best dishes we ate in Italy (that wasn't pasta, of course), we baked up one of my favourite comfort foods - eggplant parmesan. It often falls under my radar but it's SO GOOD. And easy! We basically used this recipe (by a really great food blogger): http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2012/04/the-ultimate-eggplant-parmesan.html.

1. Bake the oiled and salted eggplant slices until brown at 450°C
2. Make tomato sauce (onions, garlic, carrots, oregano, tomatoes)
3. Layer them up (eggplant, fresh mozza, eggplant, mozza, eggplant, toasted breadcrumbs, parmesan)
4. Bake at 350°C until it looks good!

We only used 1 ball of mozzarella (125g) for a dish that could serve 4 sides - with the creaminess of the eggplant, you really don't need any more and it makes a perfect gooey delicious mess.

Can't wait to see what you ladies whip up!  Hope you're having a good pre-Christmas week!!

Look what I made this morning!!!!

My bed! 

And then this........

A balanced breakfast! 

All before 9am MST. I'm on a roll, ladies. I'm on a roll.

Kim, I like your idea of trying some food adventures. I promise to be more impressive with my next post.

Cooking challenge - Week #1. Cheese.

Help!

Cooking in Uppsala has been a bit more of a challenge than usual - smaller fridge, fewer options at the grocery store (they don't even have real sriracha!), and a lack of recipe books and magazines means that I have fallen into a bit of a cooking funk. One can only make root vegetable stew so many times before her stomach and brain start mutiny-ing.

Soooo....how would everyone feel about weekly food projects?  A new theme every week, ranging from an ingredient to a style to a simple challenge such as "make something you've never made before". Anything goes.

This week: Make something that highlights cheese. Simply because it's easy to get everywhere, and we have an ABUNDANCE of it in the fridge.

Deadline to post: next Sunday, Dec. 23rd (oh my...I just realized it's close to Xmas, this is probably terrible timing). Regardless, I'll post another challenge next Sat.

Xoxoxo

We bought a house!

Okay, I apologize, this isn't a post about anything crafty or cooking, but I wanted to share anyway. I will try to post something about all the wedding crafts I did before we get to our first anniversary :)

The Mr. and I will be homeowners as of January 15, 2012. So excited! It's in the lovely Westmount area of Edmonton. It's an older home, so it will need a lot of TLC over the years (even though the inside has been nicely renovated). I am going to try and document our homeownership (is that a word) via a blog. If you're interested you can follow at www.thisoldedmontonhouse.blogspot.ca

Happy holidays to everyone!

Lindsey