It's been a little over two months since I've written here. Since my last post in June, I signed a new lease; I'm moving into a new apartment in October. (๏∀๏)✨ Because of this, I've been spending a lot of my time shopping (mostly online) for furniture and decorations. I had never been interested in interior design before, but I'd consider myself a true amateur now.
Also, I'm currently on a two-week summer holiday break. I return to work right after Labour day. However, I'm in quarantine since last week because I was in contact with a family member that tested positive for the virus (the person feels wells and doesn't show symptoms as of now). I have had my two vaccine jabs (Pfizer x2), but the second dose needs 14 days to become fully efficient – that's what the nurse told me – and I had had my 2nd dose only 7 days ago when I visited the person. Therefore, I was at risk of having been infected with Covid.
I had a first Covid test a couple of days ago (which turned out negative) and I'm getting another one next week, 48 hours before I can return back to my normal activities (I need another negative result for my quarantine to end).
I don't want to dwell on this too much, though it's the most recent event that happened and it was stressful for everyone. Thank goodness I feel much more at peace now. To be honest, this quarantine was kind of a blessing in disguise; since I can't go anywhere, I have more time to concentrate on schoolwork – for which I'm still lagging, unfortunately, but eh, I guess it'd be even worse if I've had had the opportunity to go out.
This being said, let's talk about some food I cooked during August!
August 14th 2021 | Tomato Fried Rice
I "came up" with this dish a couple of years ago when I attempted to make this Chinese dish. It didn't end up like the one by Strictly Dumpling, but it still tasted good and I liked its simplicity. Thus I started making this "dumbed-down" version often during my last year of undergraduate and the years after (until I discovered slow-cooking, in the summer of 2018).
I hadn't made this dish for a long time until recently when few foods left in the fridge gave me the idea to make it again. The base ingredients are tomatoes, rice, eggs and some chicken broth. I eyeball everything. Sometimes I scramble the eggs.
I couldn't find an old picture of the exact dish but I came across the following one that is similar (taken on March 20th 2016). Here, I used cherry/grape tomatoes that I crushed in the pan with the spatula. The liquid from the tomatoes prevents the dish from getting too dry, though I generally add chicken broth. I believe I also added pesto and omitted the eggs.
August 25th 2021 | Taco Fried Rice
Another "old-school" dish I used to make when I was a full-time student. I even recorded on my blog the first time I made it lol.
It's mainly composed of ground meat (pork or beef), veggies such as green bell pepper, onions and garlic, spiced with Old El Paso taco seasoning.
In the picture below, I added two yellow zucchini. I didn't particularly like the sweetness they gave, but I had to use them somehow and they made the dish healthier I guess? Something I love about these kinds of dishes is their flexibility – you can dump in various vegetables (usually ones that you've gotta get rid of) and it'll still taste relatively good, or even better.
August 27th 2021 | Slow Cooker Summer Squash Stew
From Le grand livre de la mijoteuse
I made this dish two times in the past and overall I had a pleasing cooking & eating experience.
This time, however, my TOTM showed up the morning after I had eaten it for supper. And this time, unfortunately, the side effects were pretty rough (happens about 1/3 of the time). Like I'm hit by heatstroke and stomach flu at once. 😭 Thankfully, they generally don't last all day – a couple of hours max.
Anyhow, I'm aware the dish is most likely innocent in what happened the next day, but since I don't often eat supermarket sausage, I thought it was safer to throw the leftovers... I will probably make this recipe again, but with ground pork instead.
F A I L . . .
August 7th 2021 | Slow Cooker Chicken Marsala
[Recipe]
Although I was suspicious of the taste upon removing the lid of the slow cooker, I had the idiocy of tasting the dish after dividing it into portions in the containers, which resulted in a big dishwashing job afterwards that could've been avoided. Serves me right for following another online recipe that doesn't seem to have been "vetted" by the public.
