My not-so-great-but-restful day

I've been having some sinus problems this week. I don't know if it is allergy related or what? My headache got pretty bad last night so I did what any other person would have done. I took two NyQuil caplets and went to bed. I'm embarrassed to say what time I got out of bed today. I did get up early to let the pups out and I left a voice mail with my director to say I was taking a sick day. I don't know if it was the medicine or the allergies itself but I was really weak and achy today.

I did get the kitchen cleaned and took a great hot shower. Now I've spent quite a few hours watching the Food Network and catching up on other blogs and such. I meant to do some reading while I had down time, but I'm just not in the mood. I don't really want to think, just chill.

Right now I'm watching Ina Garten's BareFoot Contessa. Next to Good Eats, it's my favorite show in this culinary channel. She's just....well, fabulous. I'd love to live one week in her shoes. You know, live in the Hampton's, cook with herbs out of my garden, shop at the expensive seafood markets and cook for my friends every day.

I guess I'll have to stick with what I have now.

So, anyway, all this food watching has me thinking of a list of items I need to better my kitchen.

My next purchase will be this food scale:

Soehnle Model Scale 65055

For only $29 I think it'll be a great purchase.

I also need:

a citrus zester

a food processor

salad spinner

some new sharp knives would be awesome too.

In a little while I'll leave for my nephew's kindergarten graduation. I hope my sister can make it though the ceremony. She's been a basket case all week because of it. It's hard to believe that the baby is going to the first grade.

Well that's it folks, I'm going to revert back to my couch potato status now.

Cooking and such

My fajitas yesterday turned out well. I steamed chicken breast, seasoned with chili powder. Then I cut them into bite size pieces, sautteed with green peppers and onions. I added ground cumin and juice of half a lime. We put that in a flour tortilla with some salsa. I liked them. It would have been better if I had some black beans, avacado and sour cream, though. Ah well.



I tried to bake some Mahi Mahi filets last night, but as soon as they started to cook I knew I had to throw it out. It smelled way too fishy. I need to buy some more salmon. Brad and I are trying to eat more fish through the week and so far I know we like salmon and red snapper. Red snapper is more expensive, but is so worth it! I can tolerate tilapia, but I heard they were bottom dwellers. I'll need to look into that.



I found a great recipe for brown rice by Alton Brown. I'm never making my rice a different way again! It turned out perfect:

Baked Brown Rice

1 1/4 cup brown rice (med or long grain)

2 1/2 cups water

1 tbs butter

1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a pan, boil water, butter and salt. Pour hot mixture over rice in a glass baking dish. Mix and cover with tin foil. Bake for an hour. Fluff with a fork, and serve. You can also add garlic instead of salt and herbs bake nicely in this too.



Brad bought me a bamboo steamer for Valentine's Day. The other week I put some salmon filets marinated in a citrus vinaigrette on the lower rack, and squash, carrot and onion on the top rack. Man, it turned out fantastic! Oh wait, I had green beans in there too.



I'm glad it's warm again because I've been craving some good berries. Strawberries are my favorite, then blackberries and raspberries. I love blueberries in things, but not by themselves. It's so much better shopping for food now that it's warm; especially at mom n pop stands.



I'm going to Anna and Anthony's new house tonight for dinner. She's making a dish that is something like a chicken and tomato stew served over rice. She's using the baked brown rice recipe that I posted. They brought home two kittens from the shelter today; I can't wait to play with them! I'm bringing dessert...Breyer's Natural Peach Ice Cream.