Day 13: Cold day #4 -a Tuesday breakfast

Today's a cold, cold day. School is closed for the 4th day this month. What will I do? Make delicious breakfast for myself: whole wheat pancakes.

Pancakes are simple. Whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, brown sugar, egg, and oil.

 Mix it up, put it on the griddle.

 Licking the bowl optional.

Perfectly brown on both sides.

Just a little butter and syrup for the breakfast.


Tonight we're eating out with Colin's family. 

Days 6: Menu planning, grocery shopping, and meal cooking and meal eating

Day 6: Tuesday, January 21
Today I planned the rest of the week's meals, went grocery shopping after work and cooked a one-pot couscous meal. Wednesday-Friday of this week was a long one. Every Wednesday I stay late for Drama Club, Thursday I had fillings and Friday I'm always spent -even on a short week.

Day 7-9, Wednesday through Friday, meals were planned from Cook's Illustrated as:

• Pan-seared inexpensive steak (published September 1, 2005) and rice pilaf with vermicelli (published March 1, 2000),
• Parmesan-crusted chicken cutlets (published March 1, 2007) and make-ahead mashed potatoes (published March 12, 2007),
• Sweet and tangy oven-barbecued chicken (published May 1, 2004) and Brussels sprouts with garlic and farrow (published November 1, 1995).

 It didn't turn out quite as planned. Some things were cooked, some things weren't.We'll get to that later.

Tuesday's Dinner:

• Hangar Steak with Spicy Lemon Couscous (Bon Appetit)

This dinner turned out really well. It was pretty quick (hangar or skirt steak both cook so quickly because they're thin) and couscous is so fine it plumps up quickly.

This recipe has lots of veggies. Fennel, carrot, lots of delicious, crisp veggies.

Finely-chopped lemons go with the veggies.

 It's refreshing, literally, to have lemon with vegetables. They have a juicy, tart flavor that adds a different dimension because of the tough rind.

Fennel, carrot, lemon, cilantro, garlic and ground red pepper

The ground red pepper, though delicious and not as spicy as red pepper flakes, dulled the color significantly and made it look monotone. 

If you might recall, the nice butcher counter guy at Cermak mistook my order for 1 pound of flank steak for 4 pounds. I was disappointed to begin with, but then I froze the extra and it was just fine. Especially when they cleaned the fat off for me.

Season the steak with salt and pepper prior to pan frying.

When it's all said and done:

Cilantro for garnish and toast as a side.

 Less blurry:

It would be more beautiful with red pepper flakes instead of ground red pepper.