Milestone for Jeanne.

I've did it. I've really did it. No, it's not that I've received an acceptance letter from pharmacy school. It's that I'VE HAD SANDWICHES FOR TWO WEEKS STRAIGHT! If you know me at all, that's a huge accomplishment. It sounds so high-maintenance, but I can't even eat the same kind of meals for three days without gagging. I start avoiding it long enough for it to spoil, so I would have a legitimate reason to throw it out. Bizarre, I know.

I haven't had sandwiches for every meal, of course. That would be silly. ;) What happened was that I made similar sandwiches to the ones I posted the other week for a couple of days, but somewhere along the way, I remembered that I didn't like tomatoes all that much, and it made me avoid meat-filled sandwiches for a while. During that time, I made sandwiches with Ralph's Hazelnut spread and Ralph's Natural Crunchy peanut butter for breakfast/lunch. I remember getting tired of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches really easily, but for some reason, the peanut butter and hazelnut spread combo has been working for me. Half the jars are gone! And I've finished one whole bag of bread!

The other day, after my PSYC 1 midterm, I decided I really wanted to try making a risotto-inspired dish so I could use up the terrible American rice I bought from Ralph's. I stopped by Henry's Marketplace to buy a small can of tomato paste and chicken breast slices (and grabbed 3 pears, 3 oranges, and 2 onions while I was at it for total of $6!) Gathering rice, tomatoes, butter, canned corn, organic chicken stock, and some lactose-free milk, I worked at it for an hour or so before giving up. I couldn't get some of the rice to fully cook, and naively thought if I put it into my rice-cooker, it would solve the problem. That ended up doing nothing except making my "risotto" into a more porridge-consistency. But the good thing was that the dish smelled really good (probably because the chicken I haphazardly marinated turned out great) and I packed it up into my glass containers to bring to school. Had some yesterday and the occasional crunch of uncooked rice was quite nasty, but I think once I solve that problem, this recipe is a keeper.

Early this afternoon, I made tomato egg drop soup to finish off the remainder of the chicken stock. Sadly, I covered the bowl with saran wrap and left it in my room, only to come home and discover that a fly flew and DIED in it. I googled to see if it was safe to eat the soup, and found mixed opinions. I decided I was too grossed out anyway, and dumped the soup and instead made myself the two lovely sandwiches you see above. =D I sautéed some onions that I had pre-chopped from the failed-risotto day, and added it to the turkey, egg, monterrey jack cheese and buttered toast sandwich.

Also, I stopped by Trader Joe's today to pick up some prepackaged Rotisserie Chicken Slices, Chicken and Vegetable Potstickers, Spinach Tortellini, and a can of Turkey Chili (I tried a sample of the chili dogs they had and it was delicious!) Stopped by Ralph's to get more bread(!), and picked up two jars of spaghetti sauce. Also got fresh green beans for $2 from the farmer's vendor right next to Trader Joe's. I spend too much time at the market. :( Need to come up with better schedule.

Lastly, I've decided I'm going to try eating Trader Joe's frozen foods instead of keep wasting time making dishes that turn out terrible. The ones I picked up today were just $2 apiece, so 5 frozen meals for the week will just be $10! I figure if I combine that with sandwiches for lunch, I won't wear out my tastebuds. Will update y'all on how that goes!

Jeanne discovers bread.

So ok, total lie. I haven't been living under a rock for so long that I haven't seen bread until this week. But recently, I've been eating so infrequently that I suppose my brain subconsciously has an orgasm every time it sees any image of food online. Ok, more lies, not just any image of food. My palate is too delicate (read: I'm too picky) to fantasize about just any dish. ;)

This particular dish I came across last week wasn't some concoction that's recently rocked the culinary world. In fact, every kid in America has probably had it at some point or the other. What the frick is this dish, you say? *drum roll* The cheese sandwich.

Maybe because I've been stressing over school so much lately that I find reason to get distracted by the littlest thing, but holy cow, as soon as that scrumptious snapshot on All Recipes registered in my visual association cortex, I knew THAT MEAL HAD TO BE MINE.

So yesterday, I stopped by Ralph's and got Van de Kamp's Honey and Oat Bran bread, Land O' Lake's Monterrey Jack cheese, Challenge Butter's Spreadable Butter with Canola Oil, and some Roma tomatoes and spinach. I wasn't satisfied with the collection of deli meats at Ralph's, and I vaguely remembered that the Trader Joe's next door had some pretty delicious-looking stuff, so I stopped by there next. My plan was to buy this huge chunk of pre-cooked Rosemary-infused chicken breast they sell for $5, but when I got there, I realized I probably wouldn't have time in the morning to keep slicing that thing up to make sandwiches (read: I remembered my laziness) and decided to check out the pre-sliced pre-cooked deli meat instead (God, I'm lazy.) That turned out to be the better deal, since there was a wider selection of meats and the ingredients seemed mostly natural. I grabbed the Peppered Turkey Breast because it had 2% more Iron. Well ok, the actual reason was that the ringlet of pepper on the brim of the slices were pretty, and I'm a sucker for visual stimulus.

That night, I buttered up the bread before frying it on the stove and piling sliced pieces of turkey, cheese, tomatoes, and spinach on top. In that order. (Ask the boyfriend; he'll tell you I'm very particular with my sandwich arrangement.) I didn't get around to eating it until late this afternoon, and had to reheat it in a toaster oven at work. By the time I actually sat down to eat it, however (had to walk from workplace to student center), it had gotten cold again! But one bite into that mighty thing and ohhhh my gooodnesss, that didn't even matter. I usually don't eat tomatoes, but the ones I picked were firm enough that my usual gag reflex to fresh tomatoes didn't kick in. Unfortunately, the spinach was a whole other story. It tasted like bad dried seaweed! I stomached it for the first half of the sandwich, but when I got to the second half, I decided I didn't want the pieces ruining an otherwise perfectly good meal so I picked them all out. I asked the boyfriend, Master of Eating Veggies, whether spinach was supposed to taste like that and he said no...so either I picked bad spinach, or it's just me. :( I've seen recipes where people use spinach in omelets, so I might try that out to use the rest of what I have...

After that success, I spent the remainder of the day zoning out in class, thinking about what other combinations of sandwiches I could make. By the time I got home, I decided that I wanted to make the one pictured above (a turkey, tomato, cheese and egg).

Lesson here is sandwiches are so easy to make! Who knew?! It's so nice not having to slave hours making meat entrees to eat with rice. I'm going to try making them more frequently so I don't have to buy lunch at school, but as Allison said, I really should be careful to not overdo it because I tend to get tired of repetitive meals very easily. ^^;; And God forbid I get tired of this; it's going to save me so much lunch money!

Poached Eggs for Dinner

Desperate times call for desperate measures and when one is hungry, the mind is like a fountain of knowledge and creativity to come up with ways to satisfy the growling stomach. Take eggs, for example. Eggs is the man's best friend...well in terms of quick meal...not so much for the cholesterol. However, I have found out that poached eggs is like heaven. It makes you feel healthy for eating eggs! Not to mention it is very easy to make. Though, don't expect perfection the first time around. Toss in a few slices of toast, a salad, and some egg soup and you've got yourself a quick, light meal. Note: definitely not the meal for the carnivorous eater who have ran a marathon.

Poached eggs:

-1-2 eggs. Depends on how much you want to eat.

-saucer/pot of boiling drinkable water

1. The secret to poached eggs is to gently add the eggs into a pot of hot water and keep the whites localized around the yolk. If you're comfortable with breaking the egg directly into the saucer, yay, if not, break the egg into a cup and then gently slide the egg into the pot. Use a spoon to fold the whites over the yolk and keep the whites from scattering arou

nd the water. If you want, you can put a lid over the pot and cook the egg to your desire. Take note that poached eggs taste best when the yolk is still liquidy. Gently and carefully fish the egg out of the pot. Sprinkle some black peppers on it if you prefer. Repeat the same methods for the other eggs.

*Note: Do not put the egg into boiling water. Heat the water to boil, then lower the heat.

2. Another way to do this, which I've f

ound on youtube, is really fun. But you've got to be quick. Take a spoon and stir the hot water in circular motions so that you create a swirling effect. Quickly, slide th

e egg into the water. You'll see that the swirling action would help localize the whites around the yolk. And it's fun to watch.

3. Now, the pot of water you have may have some egg whites that "fell off" the whole egg, but luckily you can turn that into egg soup. Add 1-2 tomatoes to the pot, salt for flavor, and add a spoonfuls of beaten eggs into the soup. Cook until the tomatoes are soft. The soup should have a salty, yet tangy flavor.

3. Salad of your choice and toast.

Canh Chua College Style!

Hello fellow college students who are hungry and dying of a home cooked meal because after a whole week of eating pasta, chicken, and burritos for lunch and dinner, your heart just wants to give up...literally. So I understand that making a home cooked meal is hard, especially Vietnamese food since there are so many different types of spices and herbs you have to incorporate into the food to give it that exploding Southeast Asian flavor; not to mention those spices and herbs can be expensive and difficult to find (if you're in a city that does not have a large Asian community). But, all that aside, to help the poor, starving college student who wants to reminisce the scent of his or her mother's cooking, but does not know the traditional way (or does not have time), here is a simplified version of canh chua.

Canh chua is Vietnamese sour soup. It's literally called sour soup in Vietnamese! Traditionally, it would be cooked with catfish or cá trê (in VN). I don't think we have cá trê in the U.S., or not to my knowledge. It is best with catfish, but it could also be substituted for salmon or chicken ( I will go into the best type of chicken sour soup later). I don't like chicken much and I love salmon, which is a good thing because frozen salmon fillets are easier to work with in comparison to catfish. After all, we are only college students with no prior knowledge in cooking. The main ingredient to make the sour soup sour is usually tamarind (me in Vietnamese) and sometimes we would add pineapples to give it a more flavorful taste. So onward to the simplified version of canh chua, where everyone can make it. It takes about 20 minutes max once you have all the ingredients at hand.

Ingredients:

-A bag of tamarind/sour soup seasoning

-A fillet of salmon

-A can of Dole pineapple chunks in juice NOT syrup.

-Bean sprouts

-Tomatoes

-Bạc hà (it's a spongy, stalk-like veggie, usually found in veggie section in Asian supermarket).

-Leek OR shallots

-Ngò ôm (herb for seasoning)

-Fish sauce OR mushroom seasoning OR salt (I prefer the first two over the last)

-Tofu (optional)

-Red peppers (optional)

1. Heat up the pot and put a bit of oil in it. Dice the leek/shallot. Put it into the pot and stir it around. Add in the salmon fillets.

2. Once the salmon is slightly seared, add water to the pot. Fill half a pot.

3. Add half a bag of tamarind seasoning in. Stir. Wait for pot to boil. When the water boils, there will usually be frothy bubbles. Carefully spoon them out. Cut tofu into squares and put them into the pot.

4. Cut the tomatoes into quarters. Add tomatoes. Drain the pineapples from the juices (you can keep the juices if you want) and add the pineapples chunks. Bring pot to boil again.

5. Add bạc hà. The bạc hà doesn't take that long to cook. Lower the heat if the soup starts to boil.

6. Taste the soup. Too sour or not salty? Add some fish sauce/mushroom seasoning/salt. Not sour enough? Add a bit more of the tamarind mix. Too salty? Add some water or some of the pineapple juices that you saved. Keep on it until you get the flavor you want.

7. Add in the bean sprouts.

8. Wash and dice the ngò ôm. Garnish the soup with it.

9. If you want red peppers for spice, cut the red pepper into small pieces and put it in.

10. Eat and enjoy!

To me, this is the simplest version of canh chua. Now, onto the chicken canh chua. Usually in Vietnam, there would be an herb called lá dang. It provides the sour taste to the canh chua, totally different from the tamarind. In America, we don't have lá dang. So we have to improvise. My Mum uses rau chua, literally called sour herb. Those who eat bánh xèo should be familiar with rau chua.

So enjoy this simple recipe and remember, every time you cook something, you come up with alternative ways to make it better and more unique. I hope I can learn how to make cá kho tộ, so I can have canh chua cá kho tộ. First, I have to learn how to make the catfish...