From Calum, who doesn't see the point of all of my blogging about cooking:

March 3rd:

Today I made frosted flakes with milk, or “flacon du mais glacee au
lait”. Bought large 900g box at Price Chopper. N. sure if this will
last. Flakes were v. sweet because of frosting. Will have to try with
less milk next time.

March 4th:

Tried frosted flakes again, but this time, I added flakes to milk
instead of milk with flakes after researching this concept a little
more on the Internet.

This worked out very well. I will put up a flickr photostream on how
to pour the flakes into the milk.

Tags: soggy, cereal, linux, blogging

March 6th:

Had to skip breakfast today but I wrote a poem about frosted flakes:

Flakes of corn are sweet
A-drift they float in white ocean
Loss of taste in time

March 8th:

Oh! I have friends who also like frosted flakes! Props to
lulubear83, gigi7, cerealchik!

March 10th:

I have decided to experiment with fruit today. Bought carton of
strawberries from market (link to Google frappr of fruit stands in
downtown Toronto). Here is a mob-blog of my shopping trip:

E-Mail from Calum Tsang

I cooked salmon for the first time today. =D I followed the recipe for salmon with avocado with lots of liberal changes: green bellpepper instead of orange, plum tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes, and salmon steak instead of salmon fillet. Despite all these changes, it turned out quite well.

I prepared aglio et olio penne (hah! garlic and olive oil!) with
sauteed mushrooms. The penne was a bit undercooked, but I'll fix that
next time. I took it out slightly before 9 minutes because I like my
pasta a little firm, but next time I'll let it get a little softer.

Props go to Calum for scrubbing the broiler pan until it gleamed. =)

After giving that cook-or-die speech, I felt like treating myself to
something special. So for today: pepper steak and mashed potatoes!
This turned out to be surprisingly easy to prepare. Sure, it wasn't
melt-in-my-mouth tender, but it was fine.

Level up! Also, have discovered the joys of rosemary.

I hosted a small party to thank some of my friends for truly
extraordinary acts of kindness. =) Calum, James, Steve and Yeow-Tong
have been absolutely amazing, and I wanted to do something special for
them, having invited myself over to their homes, roused them out of
bed, dragged them out on adventures, and raided their larders
(respectively).

So: my first real party.

I splurged on flowers, buying pink-and-white carnations and a small
African violet. The guys probably didn't notice it, but it made me
feel wonderful. =)

For appetizers, I arranged prosciutto ham on a large plate and
drizzled olive oil over it. I then surrounded it with insalata
tricolore (halved cherry tomatoes interleaved with soft mozzarella and
sprinkled with fresh basil). I also served bacon and cheese potato
soup.

For the main course, I baked an extra-cheesy lasagna. Minor whoops: I
boiled the entire lasagna package in my excitement, not realizing that
I was supposed to boil only twelve noodles. Duh. That's okay, I can
have mini-lasagna rolls tomorrow, although I've run out of ground beef
so that might take a little magic.

For dessert, I served the apple pie that Calum taught me how to bake.
Calum was surprised at how flaky it turned out. Apparently, flakiness
is a good thing.

I also wrote them thank-you notes on monogrammed Crane cards. =)

Everything was very well-received, and James' parting compliment was:
“Sacha, you're a domestic goddess.” =) I had a lot of fun preparing
everything for them, and I greatly enjoyed the conversation
afterwards. I'm thrilled to see that they get along, although some are
still a little nervous in company.

James remembered the deal I made two dinner parties ago, and insisted
on doing the dishes this time. Aww! =)

How to make things better: ditch store-bought garlic bread and make my
own. Also, improve timing of bread so that bread and pasta are out of
the oven at the same time.

Random Japanese sentence:

New things: beets, fritatta. Level up!

Today I had my first beet. It reminded me of baby corn, which I also
like eating. It might go well with the purple sweet potatoes… Hmm.
=) One of the good things about the Good Food Box is that you're
forced to experiment! Whee!

Today I made a fresh vegetable fritatta. I started with the basic idea
of a fritatta, which is really just scrambled eggs with stuff on it,
or an omelette that hasn't been folded. Here's what I did:

1. Chop half a carrot, half a potato, and half a beet into half-inch
   cubes. (There's a pattern here somewhere…)
2. Layer the carrots, potatoes, and beets in a microwaveable dish. Add a little bit of water.
3. Add some clusters of broccoli, if you want.
4. Cover and microwave for three minutes.
5. Heat a pan to medium. Add oil.
6. Beat the eggs lightly.
7. Drain vegetables and add to pan. Spread out so that they're evenly distributed.
8. Pour egg over vegetables. Cover and cook until golden,

Not bad at all… =)

There re better ways to prepare a fritatta. I should try them out! I
need a skillet that can go from rangetop to oven…

Level up!

• Purple sweet potato, cubed (1 inch)
• Chicken breast, cubed: can be leftovers
• Lettuce
• Vinaigrette, or balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper

1. Put potato cubes in microwaveable container with a little bit of water.
2. Cover and microwave the potato for 3 minutes, or until soft.
3. Heat olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat.
4. Brown the chicken cubes in the pan.
5. Make vinaigrette by mixing balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
6. Tear the lettuce into bits.
7. Drain the potato cubes and add them to the lettuce.
8. Add the chicken cubes to the lettuce.
9. Drizzle dressing. Delicious!

I know, I know, I said I'd never buy a whole chicken again, but
Dominion had a two-for-one chicken sale! I froze one and stuffed the
other with apples and onions before roasting it. That's why I had
plenty of cooked chicken on hand. I needed to find interesting ways to
use the fruits and vegetables from the
Good Food Box. In particular, I had a head of quickly-wilting romaine lettuce,
and I wanted to use the sweet potatoes (kamote! yay!).

I Googled up a recipe for chicken sweet potato salad and threw everything together quickly. It was a nice meal, and I liked the way the sweet potato contrasted with the balsamic vinegar. =)

Happy girl. Level up!

Here's what in the Good Food Box for this fortnight:

Help! Must figure out how to cook beets, pears… Waaah!

I think I'm going to make pear pie.