Made caramelized onion today, with roast beef into a sandwich.

RECIPE
onion, french styled
olive oil
balsamic vinegar

1. heat olive oil on medium heat
2. when oil shimmers, add in onion
3. saute 10 minutes, stirring constantly
4. turn heat down lowest
5. saute 40 minutes, or until nice and soft
6. add a LITTLE vinegar for new flavors

Tomato, onion, bell-pepper and chicken rice.

RECIPE
onion
tomato
olive oil or butter
bellpepper (red or orange, preferably)
rice (day old, preferably)

1. chop up the onions
2. chop up tomato
3. chop up bell pepper
4. heat oil in pan on medium high
5. saute onions until soft (about 7 minutes) stir often
6. add in the bellpepper
7. saute another 5 minutes
8. add in tomato
9. saute 1 minute
10. add in the rice, mix well
11. saute until desired
12. serve!

After the salsa sat in the fridge overnight, I used it to make some tortilla!

RECIPE FOR SALSA:
onions
tomatoes
cilantro
lemons
shrimp (optional) cooked

1. chop up everything but lemons
2. mix together
3. drizzle lemon juice over (1 lemon for 1 onion)
4. mix well
5. let it sit overnight

It tastes better with shrimp, but I couldn't afford it ><
2.

Yanbo come home from work today and complained (jokingly) because... there was no hot dinner waiting for him. I think I've spoiled him way too much.. pretty sure that, in college at least, having a meal at the end of your day is a rare treat, not an everyday occurrence. I told him to make a sandwich, but I caved in and made this potato salad. This was super easy to make. Potatoes, mayo, mustard, celery, pickles, onions, hardboiled egg (save time by boiling the potatoes with the egg. Also, if you're lazy like me, you can just boil the potato until the skin is cracking a little. Makes it super easy to cube and prepare, plus you just throw the potatoes in!) The recipe called for basil and red bell pepper, but I was like.. pft.

I LOVE potato salad, to be honest. I think next time I'll throw in a bit of balsamic vinegar&olive oil and see how that turns out.

RECIPE
2 potatos
mayo
mustard
1 stalk of celery
1 pickle
1 table pickle juice
1/2 onion
1 to 2 eggs

1. boil egg and potatoes together until potatoes aredone (but not too soft)
2. chop up potato, egg, celery, onion, and pickle
3. mix together
4. add in pickle juice
5. add in mustard
6. add in mayo
7. let chill or eat warm

I'm really proud of this creme brulee I made. The dark sprinkles is ground cinnamon, and I made this completely from scratch! (I used the egg whites in a spinach omelet later). I didn't have the little torch for the sugar, so I stuck it in the broiler for 2-3 minutes.

[Actually, I made 4 of them, but I only took a picture of this one.]

RECIPE
5 egg yolks (discard whites, or save for omelette)
1 pint of heavy cream
1/4th cup of sugar (more or less, depending how sweet you like it)
vanilla extract (as much as you want)
nutmeg
cinnamon

PREHEAT OVEN TO 370
1. mix yolk & sugar together until fluffy
2. in saucepan, heat heavy cream and vanilla extract, a little cinnamon until VERY hot but NOT boiling (it will curdle)
3. mix a little of the yolk and hot cream
4. pour the rest of the yolk into saucepan, mix well
5. pour into ramekins, top with nutmeg & cinnamon
6. bake in waterbath for 30 minutes or longer, until it jiggles like jello slightly in the middle
7. when it's done, fridge it overnight or 2 hours
8. CRUNCHY TOP: sprinkle sugar over the top, then broil it or use a torch

This is my double baked potato recipe I tried. It was actually surprisingly simple and very time effective.

RECIPE:
4 russet potatoes
olive oil
bacon (4 slices)
milk
butter

1. rub potatoes with olive oil, poke with a fork, and bake at 350 for an hour or until soft
2. when potatoes are done, fry bacon (no oil, bacon has a lot) while potatoes cool
3. chop up the bacon
4. cut potatoes in half, like little boats. scoop out potato, but leave a thin layer of it on the potatoes (see picture)
5. mix the potato (hopefully still fairly warm), bacon, milk, butter, and bacon drippings
6. divide into the little boats

one slice of bacon for every potato.

So this deceptively simple dinner took a lot more time than yesterdays dinner. The tomato is oven roasted (with olive oil, oregano, salt and freshly ground pepper). The chicken is sauteed in butter with shallots and tarragon. The pasta is the easiest part, mixed with olive oil to keep it nice and fresh.

RECIPE
tomato
shallots
chicken (diced)
tarragon
olive oil or butter
oregano
salt
pepper
pasta

(MAKE PASTA, then drain and toss in olive oil to keep it fresh)
1. cut up tomatoes, drizzle with oil and oregano, salt and pepper to taste
2. bake for 15 minutes at 400
3. heat butter or oil in pan
4. saute shallots for 8 minutes ish on medium high
5. add in chicken
6. cook until chicken is done
7. add in tomatoes
8. mix with pasta

This was a success. Like a major success, as far as I'm concerned. Yanbo ate four servings in one sitting.

So for a very long time I've been in LOVE with the tarragon chicken sandwich from Starbucks. The only problem is that it's like 7.25 for a measly little sandwich.

I found this recipe for chicken tarragon salad, and I recreated it as best I could. While it's not the same taste, it's still tasty (honestly).

There's celery, cranberries, chicken, mayo, lemon juice, and tarragon.

RECIPE
2/3 cup of cranberries
1 cup of cooked chicken, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
2 table of tarragon
1 juice from lemon
1/2 cup of mayo (or to taste)
mix it all together :), mayo last

eat stuffed in tomato, on bread, with lettuce, or plain