chef moi

Remember the good old days in Aix when I'd cook for myself every day? It looks like they're back! Mom and Dad have been very busy in Korea working hard on some exciting new developments for their company, leaving Jenn and I at home to take care of ourselves...about time, I guess, considering the fact that I graduated from college last month and am 3 months past 22 years old. I've been having fun cooking things for Jenn and I to eat, sometimes just for myself, and they've turned out to be GRAND successes!

A couple weeks ago, I made tiramisu for the family to enjoy for dessert. I used a recipe that I got from an Italian graduate student named Emanuelo that I met in Geneva while I was abroad. It's still written down (transcribed from a phone conversation) on a sheet of French note paper...and it was quite a hit. The family loved it :)

Then, when Jenn and I went up to Ithaca, we cooked and fixed most of our meals, and tried to help Jin by using up leftover groceries that she wouldn't need once we got her moved out of her apartment. She had soy sauce, buckwheat noodles, some oil, salt, pepper, and tater tots. We left the tater tots. But we bought a little bit of steak and I made a soy sauce/sesame oil marinade for the steak and made the buckwheat noodles and threw it all together for a delicious dinner!

Yesterday night, I made chicken francese/française (depends on whether you're at an Italian or French restaurant). It consists of chicken drenched in a batter made of lemon juice, egg, salt, and pepper, pan-fried, and placed on top of pasta. Drizzled on top? A thickened sauce made of flour, more lemon juice, white wine, chicken broth, and parsley flakes. It's one of my favorite Italian dishes, and Jenn's default order at any Italian restaurant...so I was nervous that it wouldn't be as good...but IT WAS SO FREAKING GOOD.

Tonight, Jenn's boyfriend joined us for dinner, and so Jenn helped me pan-fry some chicken breast dipped in an egg, salt, and pepper batter and I made some homemade macaroni and cheese. It actually ended up being ziti with a mix of cheddar and monterey jack cheese and I used an egg, kosher salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and mustard powder mixture to bind it all together...again, DELICIOUS. And it was a big hit with Jenn and Andrew!

I'm so excited to continue my cooking escapades! Particularly when I'm in D.C. with my new housemates :)