FOOD!

I'm going to take a little break from retelling my fall break trip to talk about the food I've been making. I've never really thought of myself as a cook but my roommates LOVE  coming home to see me in the kitchen. Usually it means they'll eat something good for dinner. I tend not to use recipes 1. because the measurements are different here and I have no way of measuring anything 2. because it's more fun to make up my own recipes.

When I was in Milan, Ken and I decided to try to make chicken salad. I recreated the chicken salad but added a few of my own spices since we didn't write down what we added the first time. All I remember is adding all the spices we had around and then at the last minute I added a little bit of curry. It turned out deliciously! My roommates couldn't keep away. I also made some beer bread to go with it since I didn't have anything to eat with my chicken salad. Needless to say, it was a delicious dinner and lunch for the next day.

Next I made a pasta salad. My only goal in making this was to get rid of the stuff that was just sitting on my shelf. I needed to made room! I added some artichoke hearts that I bought one day for no reason in particular, then some corn and garbonzo beans. I also fried some red peppers and eggplant to put in it. It was ok. I've made better dishes.

Then, I made some shepherd's pie. I realized I don't really know how to season meat but next time it will be much better. Overall I thought it tasted pretty good. It was definitely nice to have around this weekend. I hate waking up at noon and not having anything to eat.

Friday night one of my roommates was in Spain so the remaining four of us decided to each cook a course. Joana made us an appetizer of cauliflower/blue cheese soup. I am pretty sure that was the first time I have ever eaten cauliflower voluntarily.

For the next course we had an eggplant, zucchini and red pepper quiche made by Corina. It was delicious, of course!

Next we had shells stuffed with ricotta and mushrooms made by Antonietta. They were so good also. I wasn't sure I would be able to eat the dessert I made. Too much food!!

Finally for dessert I made an apple crisp. I was impressed by how easy it was to make. I'll be sure to make that again very soon. It was definitely a hit.

Since then we've been eating only left overs. The crisp and the soup didn't have many leftovers and the rest we've been eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I think it was a successful week of food.