You CAN Make Friends With Salad

My new favorite thing to eat in a salad: Green Apples. They are super yummy and quite crunchy with a fun tartness that adds new depth to a salad. Mostly I've been eating them on the salads because The Pedant and I bought a Costco-sized bunch and if I don't, I'm afraid they will take over our fridge. But it's OK because they are tasty. Especially with a lemon balsamic vinaigrette (of my own creation) and humus for protein (and also because it came in the Costco-sized container).

Yum!

The Sherbs's eggplant and TVP cutlet casserole (or was it a terrine?) in Parma style, was fabulous. I'll eat pretty much anything breaded in tomato sauce with cheese on top, but the dish was beyond the usual parmadelicious.

I made salad. It was also good, but not as incredible. Veggies go in bowl, dressing gets made out of vinegar, oil, mustard, garlic, and sweetener, dressing goes on veggies. Four minutes, tops.

We had wine with dinner in our Grey Ghost Winery glasses. Because we are in Virginia, and therefore must celebrate Confederate guerilla fighters.

I ♥ my Immersion Blender

We have a hand blender. It works like magic.

A couple days ago, we made bean soup in the slow cooker. To finish it, as the recipe suggested, I inserted the hand blender and turned it on.

There is little more satisfying in food preparation than using a hand blender. Immediately, the pot you're working with becomes a maelstrom of pureéing food, and if you're not careful, you spray it everywhere. It is awesome.

Much has occurred recently which has prevented blogging. So, a quick update, both food and not-food related.

NOT FOOD:
The move has proven successful. Art is up. New bed is comfy.
Area is pretty.
DVD Player is amazing, as is my new Netflix account.

FOOD:
Our kitchen is conducive to making lots and lots of food. I adore microwaves!
COSTCO has proven a great necessity to have around. Visited 3 times in the last week and a half.
Lots of fun restaurants near here, but have only eaten at one which was tapas and quite tasty.
Dinner tonight: Chicken-Eggplant Parmeasan. Will hopefully be amaizing. Ingredients:

• Fake Chicken Patties
• One eggplant, thinly sliced
• Ricotta cheese, mixed with some grated Parmesan, EVOO, spices and mushrooms (the fat free ricotta is healthy, but needs more to give it some umph and spreading power)
• Homemade tomato sauce
• Cheese on top

It is all prepared and has been soaking since last night. I will put it in the oven pre-dinner tonight. It will hopefully be amazing at The Pedant and I hope.

End of an Era

So it's my last day in my current job. Although I will miss some of the people much more than others, I will miss some of the food options:

Cafeteria pizza (well, sometimes)
The Cookies....mmmmm....cookies...but my wallet and waistline will thank me
The little bodega's coffee, except they raised their prices which has deterred me from getting an afternoon cup the past few weeks.
The delicious veggie cheese burrito at the cafe next store. Yum!
Free candy at student life. I have totally gotten 5 1/2 years tuition's worth of little 3 musketeers.

News You Can Use, In a Limited Sort of Way

Hershey's sugar-free chocolate syrup tastes OK in skim milk. It doesn't mix as well, but the resulting milk, while not so chocolatey, isn't bad.

The syrup alone, however, tastes absolutely toxic.

Food Attempts

On Sunday, I played the Nintendo Wii game "Cooking Mama," which humiliates one for one's inability to crack an egg using the Wii controller, and I think it jinxed my cooking.

Of course, making entirely vegetarian turnip greens in a slow cooker wasn't a guaranteed success; they're bland, but not inedible.

I did successfully make tuna fish sandwiches, although I don't know where the safety cap to some of my dehydrated spices went - it popped off somewhere.

I also destroyed a tomato with a mandoline.