Andrea’s blog

I bought the Everyday Food cookbook after watching a few episodes of the show. They seem to focus on pretty healthy and fast meals.. like Rachel Ray but without Yumbalicious and that nightmarish smile. So this week I picked 4 new recipes to try. Tonight was chicken with a mustard cream sauce.

I was worried about the sauce because I've never really cooked with wine and I don't like the taste of wine so I wasn't sure I would like this sauce. But it came out really good and Phil loved it so I will for sure make it again.

I would also like to give a shout out to my new favorite kitchen tool, THE TONGS. What! Why did I only recently buy these? I literally use them every time I cook. I want to buy another three pairs. I love them so much.

4 chicken breasts
1/4 cup white whine
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 c heavy cream

Salt and pepper both sides of chicken, then saute 10-12 minutes until done, flipping once. Remove from pan and place on plate. Add wine and simmer 2-3 minutes until it thickens. Add mustard and heavy cream, keep stirring until blended well.

We had rice and asparagus on the side. The sauce was really good and would be good for fish too.

I actually may have already posted this, as I kind of made it before but I made some changes to it. I think before Phil wasn't too excited about it but this time he really liked it.

All I had were 2 bone in pork chops so I cut them into 1" chunks and sauteed them with a small onion cut into rings. When the pork chops were brown I added 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, 3/4 cup of milk, 1/4 cup of sour cream, and 1/2 package of ranch dressing mix. It makes a kind of gravy/sauce.

Served over mashed potatoes. Last time I used whole pork chops but I think I preferred the cut chops. This would also be really good for chicken.

Tonight I am making chicken fajita tacos. mmmm

What are your rituals or traditions for starting off a new year?  

I usually make a long list of resolutions, spend a hundred dollars on cookbooks, and watch James Bond movies. 

The exclamation points are a lie. I feel no excitement!

I made chili this weekend - it came out pretty good, and there was a ton of it. I just heated some up for lunch, and I ate waaaay too much. Phil introduced me to adding sour cream to chili, and of course cheese.

I made grilled peaches this weekend too - I didn't really like them, but then I don't really like peaches. They weren't too bad, I also made a butter/cinnamon/honey sauce, I served it with ice cream which improved the taste immensely. I ate two bowls of it, until I thought I might explode.

I'm frustrated with things, like not having a job, just feeling kind of.. blah, alone, useless, ha ha I am a fountain of sunshine.

Did you go to summer camp?  Which one?  What did you enjoy doing? 
Submitted by Something Else.

No, but I always enjoyed watching summer camp movies.

Would you sign a prenuptial agreement? Why or why not?
Submitted by Lantastic. 

Obviously it depends on the pre-nup, but probably. 

So I picked up three peaches to grill tomorrow. I think I'm going to take that third peach and use it in an ice cream. Swirl in some honey, brown sugar, and cinnamon. I am going to try to make a new ice cream every week. Why not! Ice cream is delicious, and I am fat.

I am really bad about having a weekly menu, buying groceries, etc. I tried to do this for about six months when I first moved in with Phil and it was kind of a disaster. Mostly because I would buy all the ingrediants, and then we would eat out every night. It got really bad and I would throw out packages of chicken breasts, veggies, etc. A few months ago I decided to stop wasting all this food, and started buying food about two days at a time. Unfortunately, this means I go to the grocery store 3-4 times a week, and spend $30 a pop.

The past couple of weeks I have been trying to be more economical. So today I went to Albertsons, which is a grocery store I never shop at but I saw in their ad they were having a three day sale this weekend. I ended up buying a lot of staples, like rice a roni, pasta noodles, marinades, etc. They had chicken breasts on sale, so I bought three packages. I also bought a bulk package of ground beef. Theoretically, we have enough food for at least a week.

I need to find better ways to cook, too. I always cook recipes that seem designed to feed 8. We end up with a lot of leftovers, which usually get thrown out. On the other hand, it seems that when I try to "cook for two", there isn't enough food when Phil wants seconds.

I bought some peaches at the store and I'm hoping to grill them this weekend, assuming it's not too rainy. I'm also going to grill some pork chops. Tonight I am making this huge vat of chili - at least it freezes well! Plus I can use it for chili mac. I'm going to try to be better about menu planning this week.

When driving alone, what do you do?  Sing along to the radio?  Think about your day?  Something else?
Submitted by carapiccoladiva.  

I DO sing along to the radio! Only about 50% of the time my radio doesn't work, so I mostly just day dream and cross my fingers I don't die in an auto accident. Or, if I do die, I at least take out a busload of kids with me.