Not so Bad Egg White Omelette

Last night, I made omelettes for dinner. Sauteed mushrooms, ham slices that I'd thrown on the pan for a minute then made into a thick julienne, and 2% cheddar cheese. I also used egg whites from a container. Green quart, I think. I forgot what brand it is. I added one whole egg to it and cooked as usual. I served it with baby Yukon potatoes that I'd made into wedges then tossed with olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder and oregano. OH, to that we also added sliced red pepper. Well, actually, it was more like orange. I baked them in the oven for about 15 minutes then turned on the broiler to crisp up a little.

The verdict. I didn't think the egg part was bad. Steve said it wasn't fluffy enough. Indeed it wasn't, but it wasn't a bad substitute either. The insides tasted delicious. The mushroom, ham, and cheddar mixture was nice. I didn't over saute the mushrooms so they were quite juicy. Very nice. The potato wedges weren't the best. It may have been the onion powder. I don't use it often and I'm not familiar enough with the taste to utilize it well. I didn't love the way the flavors combined. And they didn't crisp up cause our broiler sucks. Oh well. Eat Something Good!

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Whole Wheat Pasta Primavera

Tonight, I made my healthy'ish version of pasta primavera. I used whole wheat pasta (Ronzoni Healthy Harvest.) I sauteed lotsa garlic, basil and onions in a good amount of olive oil. I seasoned a little with salt & pepper. After a few minutes, I added zucchini, yellow squash (both cut on an angle) and red bell pepper that'd been cut into strips. (I'd set aside these veggies from last night's dinner.) Meanwhile, I nuked the freshly cut broccoli before I added that and cherry tomatoes. Then I de-glazed a little with chicken stock and towards the end of cooking I added some white wine.

Even though I should have gone heavier with the wine, Steve lerved it! He was very skeptical of the whole wheat pasta (as was I - secretly) but it was not that bad. It was thin spaghetti and therefore you expected it to be lighter and it was. I'd envisioned mealy pasta with little grains and nugs as some, I know, are. Sid's dinner consisted of grilled chicken breast, grilled eggplant, a little zucchini and a little raw carrot added to his dry food. I added water and gave it a stir. And he woofed it down. Follow Sid and Eat Something Good!

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Korean Sliced Rib Eye

Last night, my comfort food was a korean meal made by yours truly. Actually, I didn't do much. Hardly anything at all. The dish I was in search of is simply thinly sliced rib-eye steak that you cook on a griddle (preferably set at the table) and because the well, marbled meat is so thin, it cooks up in seconds. My grandmother used to make a scallion side dish. I always took some of the scallions seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil and black pepper. The scallion has to be cut to 2" in length and then julienned. This way you can take a nice bunch and put it on the meat and then roll it. (usually using chopsticks) Or you can take a straight piece of meat and dip it in your pile of salt, pepper and sesame oil. We never mixed all three. They stayed in separate piles. Of course by the time you're done eating, all the seasonings have melded together.

We bought two different kind of kimchis. Kimchi is a staple in the korean diet. Koreans cannot eat meals without some form of it. I bought one made from cucumbers and one from napa cabbage. The one made from cabbage is the main kimchi and the others (roots, leaves, any veggie) can be made into kimchi using red pepper powder, some shrimp sauce, garlic and a couple of other things. Kimchi is potent. If not sealed properly, it will (without a doubt) cause your refrigerator to stink like garlic and something like tabasco or other hot sauce.

I served a bowl of jasmine rice with it. I would've preferred japanese or korean sticky rice but we didn't have any. So that was dinner last night. The meat was delicious. Absolutely delicious with the sesame oil, salt & pepper. The combination is so simple but oh so good with the meat. Oh, I didn't like the cucumber kimchi. It had too much of a fishy flavor as some kimchis do. I like the kind that is nicely fermented with a little vinegary flavor. And the right amount of salt.

So, a meal like this was common in my household while I was growing up. Of course, my grandmother would also prepare lots of side dishes like soups, stews, little fried yummy things and just a whole lot of stuff. It's not uncommon for korean food to be served with many side dishes. They're called banchan (I don't think I spelled that correctly.) If you ever try korean food, definitely go to a korean barbecue restaurant. Nicely marinated meat (suggesting kalbi - rib meat) comes to your table raw and you cook it to your liking on your barbecue grill that's built into the table. Prepare to smell like barbecued meat after the meal. Eat Something Good!

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Trader Joe's Eggplant Parm

So, last night for dinner we decided to try one of those Trader Joe's baked eggplant parm dishes. I served it with a side of sauteed escarole (lemon juice, red wine vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper.) The eggplant. Much to my surprise, Steve thought it was good. I say this because when I first met him he made it very clear that he does not eat eggplant. Like maybe it wasn't manly enough. Come to think of it, I've never seen him eat quiche either.

So, the first time he had it was at one of my regular restaurants, Pizza & Brew. It was good food, good service and reasonably priced. (It's a chain restaurant.) There are always people there, but you can always get a seat. So I ordered the eggplant rollatine there. And I made him try some. He was was all, oh my god. And then the next few times we went there, that's all he'd order and he'd love it.

Eggplant story number two. I thought we'd conquered his fear of eggplant. Not so. I had to twist his arm for months and months to get him to try an eggplant parm wedge. I think it was more like years then months. Finally one day, out of nowhere, he agreed to take a bite. And from judging on the expression on his face, he was either very surprised or very pleased. Or perhaps both. He could not get enough of it. Subsequent trips to our favorite pizzeria involved eggplant parm wedges.

Now, so you figure he's had eggplant parm as a wedge that he'd have no issues with trying to eat it without the wedge part. Nope. He resisted yet again. And finally, last night he took the dive. Head first. And I was, golly gee, surprised especially because it wasn't one of the better eggplant parms I've had over the years. Trader Joe's doesn't bread and fry theirs, it's baked. Fine and dandy an' all but not quite as good as the traditional way. Wanna make your belly smile? Eat Something Good!

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Trader Joe's Frozen Food Review

Last night we went a little crazy at dinner. We decided to make it a frozen food night and sampled some of Trader Joe's food. First we had their Roasted Vegetable Pizza. And it was sorta like a pizza except there was no cheese. I was skeptical at first and I was wise in doing so. The pizza is a thumbs down for me. First a highlight. The crust. It's the best pizza crust I've ever had - amongst frozen pizzas. The dough looked like it was about 1/4" thick. And the bottom had a nice crisp that lead into a well-risen dough. It was just the right texture. Soft and semi-light and not doughy. Now if you were to put sauce and cheese on that, I'd have given it a high rating. I just wasn't loving the caramelized onions. Way too many and way too sweet. The shitake mushrooms & red peppers didn't do too much to help either. My favorite little nugs were the artichoke hearts. But they weren't plentiful.

Despite the lack of cheese, it was a lot more filling than we had anticipated and we thought twice about heating up the lasagne just as I put it in. We decided to go ahead with plans. The thing took about an hour to heat completely so we had some down time. Unfortunately, a jar of salsa and blue corn tortilla chips (yes, Trader Joe's...) were calling to me and I had myself a little munchfest. Steve busted me. Then he joined me. We were bad.

So the lasagne, Roasted Vegetable Multi-grain lasagne. Steve really, really, really liked it; I thought it was okay. Left to my own devices, I would not buy it again. But because Steve likes it so much, I know it will be dinner again some time soon. And I don't mind. It had a lot of tomatoes in it and lotsa veggies like broccoli bits, cauliflower bits, grated carrots..And the multi-grain part wasn't too bad. At worst it was too slimy and mushy. At best, it was a nice thickness of lasagne noodle with a little chew. The flavor, to me, was masked by all those darned tomatoes. Oh, there was a little bit of mozzarella cheese on top. So, nay on the pizza. And okay on the lasagne from me; really, really good from Steve.

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