Etsy!

Well, this week has not been a good cooking-quest week, many thanks to the flu (or whatever ghastly cousin to the flu has been battling my immune system). It has been a week of wallowing at home, shuffling to the stove to heat up Campbell's tomato soup and snuggling under a blanket to watch cheery movies through rheumy, squinting eyes.

But! I think my immune system has won the war, as my fever broke today. Though I am left to deal with the immuno-wartime wreckage that is my ever-running nose, too-frequent sneezes and achey skin (whose idea was that for a symptom? aching skin??), I did manage to update my etsy site with new wares and a new, cleaner look.

Take a look  

I haven't had anything up for sale since the start of school as I've been very busy with work, but now I think I've got a better handle on things and can hopefully make a little bit of ingredient-buying money! Yummy things like vanilla beans don't just walk themselves into one's fridge, sadly. Now that it's November (or, as my sister says, "ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!"), I'm really looking forward to trying some different holiday baking recipes.

Til next time, I wish you good health and assiduous hand-washing.

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It's pic-CAH-ta

Resolved:
Cook 1 new and yet-untried recipe every week.
Or more, if I can manage it.

This is last week's endeavor, Chicken Piccata. With capers!

What prompted this cooking resolution, you ask? 

1. The fact that I'm wasting 1/4 of my rent if I don't use my kitchen.
2. The fact that my appliances, though ancient and somewhat falling apart, deserve better dignity than the storage and heating of frozen foods afford. 
3. The fact that said foods are bumming me out. 
4. The magazine Cooks Illustrated -- like MythBusters, for the kitchen. Seriously, even if you don't cook, this magazine is a wealth of scientific/handy culinary info.
5. Yeah, ok. The movie Julie & Julia. I actually wanted to do this before the movie, but the movie pushed me to quit lazing about and do it.

This recipe was from Cooks Illustrated: Italian Favorites 2009, found in the Meijer magazine aisle. (So I guess throw Meijer into the "inspiration list" too.) It's tangy and has a lovely depth to it thanks to the capers (which I usually don't care for). The sauce's secret was a whopping 1/4 cup of lemon juice, plus the slices you see simmered in a skillet all together until reduced. Plus chicken broth instead of white wine, which would've made it too..zippy? Anyway, it all was a delicious way to pep up saute-ed chicken, was very quick (though admittedly slower than microwaving Bagel Bites. Not a bad thing.) and made for a legitimately fulfilling meal. Hooray.

The only thing I'd change about this recipe (which I'll post later, and I hope it's not violating any copyright laws...) is to add a touch of flour to the sauce (which is supposedly a terrible thing to do but honestly, I could go for a mellower sauce).
Overall conclusion: So far, success. 
Slip-ups included:

• dropping some lemon slices on my bunny (Nunners) who had wandered unnoticed to the kitchen (she tasted, then bolted from, the slices)
• grabbing the warming dish in the oven with my bare hands (MINUS TEN POINTS), and
• leaving the dishes unwashed in the sink overnight. Capers are the last thing anybody should smell in the morning.   

Speaking of morning, it's now 3am. I'd come up with a snappy closing but really...it's 3am.Goodnight!

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Where I tell you about stuff I do.

I'm a college student with an oft-short attention span. When I'm not studying (ok, sometimes while I'm studying), I'm usually sitting in my apartment thinking about stuff I'd like to make, do, design or cook.

Either that, or I'm playing with my rabbit, Nunners -- a small round lump of fluff with a lot of chutzpah.

And this is where I'll tell you about it Read more...