Sick

All yesterday I was feeling sick with a sinus infection.  This morning, I'm feeling better but still not great.  I decided to upload some of my pictures from vacation.  I got a new camera for Christmas and have not been using it as much as I would like.  Part of me wanted to get up and go the gym this morning, the other part wanted to stay in my pajamas until noon (which seems to be where I am headed) then start being productive.  It is my last week of break and I'm starting to really want to take advantage of the option to not get dressed until way past breakfast time.  I didn't go to the gym all weekend though or take Caly for a walk because I felt terrible.  I went out once to get groceries and felt like I was going to pass out the whole time.

For dinner last night, I made Trinidadian Doubles from Munchin with Munchkin.  I've never made bread before so I was very excited when it actually started to rise.  Greg, who makes bread a lot, was not as impressed but he did do the frying of the pita bread.  The doubles were pretty good.  They would have been fantastic with this thick, Greek style yogurt that we love but we did not have that.  I also finally took some pictures with my new camera.

And of course, what would be a blog entry without a picture of my pretty beagle?

Stay in Saturday

Today we worked on cleaning and organizing the house.  My boyfriend is getting a long awaited espresso machine next weekend and in order to get in the kitchen, we had to do a lot of rearranging.  There is an old shelf in the basement, it looks almost homemade but also is very sturdy.  We are going to use that for the machine.  It is still in the basement now and I'm making dinner and with one whole wall of the kitchen empty it seems a little strange.  

We were going to have left over soup then catch a movie at six but instead, we are going later tonight.  I was really into reading The Walking Dead then decided to make a salad but boiling eggs led to making a lentil dish with chicken sausage on the side.  The dish is very loosely based of this recipe from Real Simple.  I am not really a big fan of their recipes but I needed an idea for a quick red lentil recipe.  I cook red lentils a lot but usually they take an hour or so.   

One of the best things I've learned from a cookbook is how to cook onions for an Indian dish.  Classic Indian Cooking by Julie Sahni is a great Indian cookbook.  I like that is uses Indian names for dishes instead of saying 'red lentils' or 'chickpeas'.  For a lot of the meat dishes, onions are cooked for almost a half hour on low heat.  The flavor is so much deeper then just quickly sautéing.  Another hint I learned from that book is after adding spices, the time to add liquid is after the oil starts seeping back out of the spice mixture.  So, we are having a curried red lentil dish with carrots, ginger, and garlic.  I added in a little bullion because we don't have broth and tomato paste.  

The onions are almost done.  I blogged over the summer when I made a recipe from this cookbook, must be waiting for the onions to cook makes me want to write.

Stay at Home

Today is my first day to myself in a while.  We’ve been at my family’s for over a week and then traveling home.  Today though, it’s just the beagle and me.  I woke up early but still got eight hours of sleep.  Usually, I fall back asleep after my boyfriend leaves for work but the combination of him making me laugh so hard this morning (I think he is funniest in the morning) and sleeping so well being back in our own bed, I got up and started with making a plan for the day.  

Right now, I am making a soup for dinner.  The soup is from The Spice Spoon (really glad I found this blog!).  I realized we had a ton of chana dal in the pantry and in line with my resolutions, I am trying to declutter the house.  This is much easier with less in the house but unfortunately we just brought home a car full of new stuff from home (mostly kitchen stuff).  So, I decided to use the chana dal for a spicy soup. 

I love being able to do grocery shopping and cook during the day but it does make me feel really housewife-ish, which I don’t like.  While the soup is heating up and before I start tackling organizing the basement, I thought I would post- which I forgot to include blogging more regularly in my resolutions!

Earlier, the beagle and I went on a walk in the park near our house.  I thought she would have fun watching all the geese but she ignored them.  However, she was fascinated by the people sledding and got very excited.  I realized I should bring my new camera to the park with me.  I really want to get in the habit of taking more pictures!

Tonight, my boyfriend and I are going to go the gym together though I wish I had gone this morning.  I hate working out in the evening.  Another plus of vacation is going to the gym in the morning when there are only a few people there.  Again, it feels a little like I’m a stay-at-home person but its nice doing things while most people are out of the way at work.