apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Tonight, I'm trying my hand at some Ethiopian food for the first time! I've had my injera bread starter going for 5 days now, and I'm serving it with Yesmir Wot (lentil stew). Excited! Pictures will be on the blog tomorrow or Sunday!

http://www.abreadaday.com

Still ungodly hot here, so will get out the mini Donvier and try a new recipe from David Lebovitz' book, blackberry lime sorbet.

I just made Pasta with Roasted Summer Vegetables and Basil with summer squash from my garden!

I might have to try the frozen banana pops this weekend...

we're having dreary weather on par with may here in chicago, so we're doing some comfort food, and pretending we're down south - fried chicken and waffles (first time)!

It's unseasonably cool here and I'm going to make a triple batch of our favorite spaghetti sauce so I can restock the freezer.

I have so many great veggie side dish recipes I've never tried/rarely made, so I'm thinking we'll have an all-side-dish weekend.

I'm making a bunch of food for a party, which will also use up a lot of the zucchini I'm being overrun with.

I'm also going to be trying out the new extruder-style pasta maker I just got...(I got it for ten bucks, so I'm bracing myself for "caveat emptor," but as someone in my office pointed out, even if I only get one meal out of it, I still break even.)

i made some cherry sherbet!

it's great paired with a lil muscato or prosecco!

http://www.shutterbean.com/cherry-sherbet/

My boyfriends out of town this weekend, so I just might have the time to FINALLY cook my rancho gordo cranberry beans! I also have a TON of purple cabbage to use up.. hmmm...

Cherry sherbet! Sounds lovely!

I'm going to grill some chicken satay tonight and have it with peanut sauce, green beans I'll probably also do on the grill, and if I don't feel like I'm melting, some brown rice. Or white rice, just because it's faster. Wonder if I can grill either and keep dinner out of the house altogether... :)

On these muggy days I'm all about refreshing picnic fare! I made a sweet, tart and refreshing beet/mango/mint salad.

http://gabrielaskitchen.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/ensalada-de-betabel-y-yerba-buena-a-summer-version-of-mexican-beet-salad/

Remember those blueberry bars mentioned earlier this week? I made those for brunch this morning. Yeah, we couldn't stop eating them.

I'm trying the plum semifreddo recipe mentioned here last week... I am such a sucker for the power of suggestion. It's been in the fridge for about 9 hours now.... it tasted pretty great before it went in the freezer, so I am really looking forward to the final result!

It's been warm around here so we're trying to keep things light and refreshing. For the last few days I've been doing pasta salads featuring different combos of fresh herbs, veggies, beans, and orzo. Add a salad and bread, and dinner is served. For the next orzo incarnation, I may try a variation on the pasta with mint pesto and peas dish featured here recently. We also finally got a good watermelon after a few "too early" duds, so we've been eating a lot of that (either plain, or tossed with feta and mint).

I'm going to make this chilled soup to cool off from the heat here ... the combination of flavours of the cucumber and beet is phenomenal!
http://smilesarethesoulskisses.blogspot.com/2009/05/refreshingly-cool-beet-and-cucumber.html

It's been a cooler weekend, so I'm taking advantage by cooking with the back door open. I've made vegan cabbage rolls, lasagna, and a loaf of bread. I'm trying to do all the oven dishes in one load, so that I can keep the house cool later this week by just reheating in the nuker. Also soaking and cooking large quantities of beans in the slow cooker to restock the freezer (also in the interest of not having to use the stove as often in the coming days/weeks.)

After 30 straight days of triple digit temperatures and no rain for 18 days (no, I don't live in Hell, just Central Texas)...the last thing I want to do is fire up any kind of outdoor grill -- we're in a burn ban situation. Not even an indoor oven.

So, lately Hubs and I have been gorging on certified organic veggies f rom local farmer's markets...pan-fried and marinated Asian eggplant, tomato and mozarella salad with pesto with poached chicken breasts...or Salad Nicoise with canned tuna in olive oil...anything that is cool, fresh and easy to prepare at home. (It's even too danged hot to drive to a restaurant.)

made this salad from inpraiseofleftovers.com. it was incredible a huge hit!!
http://inpraiseofleftovers.com/2009/03/26/birthday-barley-salad/