nom nom nom

I've made it a goal to cook at home more and create some interesting dishes. I said in December that I was going to try to recreate dishes from the New York Times Minimalist section. I did make one, the pasta with chicken and mushroom, risotto style. However, I didn't have my camera to take a picture of what I made. It was super easy though, and the risotto style cooking resulted in a chewier pasta (I used gemelli, which is like a denser fusilli but smaller than rotini). The pasta was also infused with the flavour of the chicken stock and wine. I should make it again so I can snap a photo.

Recently, I've had a few delicious creations as well. I seared some halibut and topped with a pine nut-walnut butter sauce. John and I made orzo as well. Lucy thought it was RICE! haha. Unfortunately, no picture of that creation.

This here is the fried rice I made with the same pine nut-walnut mix, mixed with Lucy's preserved veggie thing and topped with some garlic buttered kale. It was a delicious meal as we watched Up in the Air.

I'm a bit of a pasta fanatic. This is a pasta primavera of sorts, minus the carrots and bell peppers, so I guess it's not so primavera. I used cavatappi pasta, which I also used when I made my pesto sauce over the summer. Here, I just mixed some mushrooms, zucchini, leftover kale, and tomatoes with a bit of garlic butter and topped off with a bit of Parmesan. Yum. No complaints from Lucy!

I LOVE SOBA. John asked me if I could eat any type of food everyday, what cuisine would it be from. I told him, Japanese food. It's healthy and yummy. What more could a girl want?! This is my lunch. Just some buckwheat soba noodles mixed with edamame and carrots. There's also pieces of chicken in this but I guess they're shy and hiding under the noodles. The broth was simple. Ok I cheated. I had a broth mix that my mom brought for me from Taiwan. I'm trying to think of ways to change this noodle combo up. I used to make soba with miso, but got a little tired of that. I wish I had some ebi tempura to top this off!!

I have more food pictures but I'll save those for another post. There'll be more pasta and a certain red wine chicken that I'm bound to make again sometime this week because Lucy actually called it an "orgasm in her mouth". LMAO.

Bon appetit!

P.S. I'm so happy Meryl Streep was nominated for and Oscar for her role in Julie and Julia. She was SO GOOD in it!