Poached Egg and Pasta

I am super proud of myself and my culinary achievement... I poached my first egg! I didn't have any regular vinegar so I did improvise by using balsamic vinegar... whatever, don't judge it worked and that's all that matters!

Basically brought up some water to a rolling boil and then turned it down until it was more of a simmer. I added in some balsamic, to help the egg white form faster, and made sure the water was still simmering. With a slotted spoon I gently stirred the water before dropping in my egg (I cracked the egg and placed it in a small prep bowl to make this easier).

At first, I thought the egg exploded because there were stringy whites everywhere, but after a few seconds of using my spoon to sort of "fold" the water over the egg to help contain the whites, there in the middle of the water was this pretty little egg. I shut off the heat at this point, covered my pot, and let it sit for 2-3 minutes.
Using my slotted spoon, I carefully scooped up my egg and placed it on top of my pasta.

In the pasta I added some salt, pepper, garlic, onions, peas, grated Parmesan, and a tab of butter. Topped with my, slightly balsamic vinegary colored, poached egg.

Food, Houston Recap, and More

Given my unhealthy weekend in Houston full of BBQ, breakfast tacos, and a delicious dinner of flank steak, bone marrow risotto, and peach-blueberry cobbler...mmmm

I decided to stick to a relatively healthy dinner menu this week. At the same time, I wanted to keep it simple. So salad it is! It turned out quite tasty, colorful, and really pretty!

I seasoned the chicken chunks with some salt, pepper, paprika, and cayenne pepper and sautéed it in a pan with some olive oil and garlic. It's plated on top of a bed of arugala, orange peppers, plum tomatoes, red onion, and avocado that is dressed with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The salad is finished with a little bit of fresh lime juice.

Below are some pictures from my trip to Houston. It may have been a PIA to get there, but I got to finally visit my sister and hang out! It was a little rainy the entire weekend, but we still had fun. We went to the George Mason Ranch where we saw some chickens, cows, and houses from the 1880s-1920s. 

 

  

 

One of the other places we went was Tacos-A-Go-Go for breakfast tacos and the NASA Space Museum. My co-worker Andrew bought the All-You-Can-Jet pass from JetBlue and happened to be in Houston at the same time. Since he was only 5 minutes away from my sister's apartment, and he had never been to Houston either, we decided to hang out for the day!

Tacos-A-Go-Go: This place was a little eclectic

There was a Lego world at the museum...

...and we couldn't resist taking some pictures

There was also jousting...

...and my mom totally beat me up!

There was actual NASA stuff too...

And last but not least, we made jewelry! My sister has tons of beads, tools, etc to make earrings, necklaces, bracelets, etc. So we went to the bead store and got materials. Everything came out really cute, and it was a lot cheaper than buying pre-made jewelry!

Bought the stone and made it into a pendant.

I made the tan and brown bracelets to compliment the green bracelet, which I bought pre-made for $5.

I was sad to fly back home since I don't really see my sister too often so despite a late start to my vacation, it was worth it! xoxo D! The flight home was uneventful, but I did get to see a pretty cool sunset sky from the plane.

Guac Party and Dinner!

I had ordered 2 avocados from Fresh Direct and got 2 for free in the Fresh Produce program. So since there was no way I was going to eat 4 avocados, what better way to utilize extra avocados than to make some guacamole! Maggie, we miss you and I wish you could be a part of our guac party!!

As for dinner, I made marinaded some boneless pork chops in soy sauce, garlic, and lime juice and placed it over a bed of arugala mixed with tomatoes and peppers. I was too lazy to take pictures throughout, but here's a pic of the final product :)

On a totally unrelated note, here's a picture of the cute stuffed monkey I bought from the NASA Space Museum in Houston. He's currently attached to my reading lamp next to my bed. Isn't he cute??

Tornadoes, Taxis and Tears

Well, nothing like a ridiculous storm full of thunder, lighting, hail, and tornadoes to put a damper on my vacation. It took me 45 minutes to get a cab from my office, and then another 3 hrs to travel about 8 miles... the last 2 of those 8 miles probably took me 2.5 hrs. Ridiculous. I finally called it quits and decided to come back to Manhattan. Don't know if I made the right decision or not as my 8:45pm flight is still "delayed" and has a current estimated departure time of 1:20am. I suppose I could have roughed it out, but I was pretty sure that route would have been another 3+ hrs in a cab... 6 hours in a car with a guy telling me he should have never picked me up and how I "totally messed up" his night was unbearable. There were many tears and I had to draw the line somewhere.

All the flights tomorrow morning and afternoon are sold out due to tonight's AMAZING weather. I'm still a bit upset that I've lost a day of vacation, but I'm determined to get there. So, Round 2: Flight to Houston tomorrow @ 8:45pm.

The only thing that cheered me up today was the delivery of the painting for my room! I fell in love with it at the store and hung it up as soon as I got home.

Balsamic Dijon Chicken with Asparagus

Ingredients

1. Balsamic Vinegar
2. Olive Oil
3. Dijon Mustard
4. Garlic
5. Thyme
6. Chicken Cutlet
7. Asparagus
8. Tomatoes
9. Salt & Pepper

Balsamic Dijon Chicken with Asparagus

Create a marinade combining the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, dijon mustard, minced garlic, and some thyme. Mix everything thoroughly and pour into a Ziploc bag. Insert chicken and refrigerate overnight.

To prepare the asparagus, gently bend the stalks. It should break at its natural breaking point, getting rid of the more woody portion. Mince a clove of garlic and dice some tomatoes. Drizzle some olive oil on the asparagus, season with salt and pepper, and gently toss. Add olive oil in a pan with medium heat. Sauté the asparagus for 4-5 minutes, turn off the heat, and then cover pan with a lid to steam. 

While you are sautéing the asparagus, place another pan over medium-high heat for the chicken. Add some olive oil, and when it comes up to heat, remove the chicken from its marinade and into the pan. Cook the chicken cutlets 2-3 minutes on each side. 

Garlic Chicken with Zucchini and Carrots

Have a headache, so this is going to be a short post...

I wanted to practice my knife skills so I decided to julienne some zucchini and carrots. Tossed it in some olive oil, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

 

Balsamic Chicken Pasta & Summer Salad with Grilled Chicken

Have been a little busy as of late, so there hasn't been much cooking. However, I did manage to throw 2 dishes together in the past week. 

One was a simple pasta dish with balsamic marinated chicken, onions, garlic, carrots, and tomato. I was in a hurry, so I only marinated the chicken for about 15 minutes in a mixture of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and basil. While I was waiting for the chicken to marinate I boiled the water and made the pasta. I drained and set this aside when it was finished.
On medium heat, with a little bit of olive oil in a pan, I sautéed the onions, garlic and carrots until tender and cooked through. In a separate pan, on medium-high heat, I cooked the chicken. I was using relatively thin chicken cutlet so it really only took 2-3 minutes on each side. 
Once the vegetable mixture was ready, I added a tab of butter, dumped the pasta in the pan, and mixed everything together. At this point I also tossed in the diced tomatoes I had. 
Slice the chicken and toss in the pan to warm up before plating.

The other was a summery salad. Grilled chicken on top of a bed arugula, tomatoes, strawberries, sautéed zucchini, and walnuts with a light drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. I seasoned the chicken with some salt and pepper, and cooked it for 2-3 minutes on each side in a pan with olive oil on medium-high heat. I also cut the zucchini into manageable bite-sized pieces, tossed in olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, and let them soften up in a pan on medium heat. Once everything was cooked, I basically just threw the rest of the salad together. Quick and easy!