Breakfast, lunch and then some

I am especially proud of these pancakes. They were a little dense, but in a wonderful, pillow-y kind of way. I used the New York Times recipe but separated the eggs and whipped the egg whites before folding into the batter at the very end. I won't make pancakes any other way now.



Best. Lunch. Ever.

Brunch II

It's common, I think, to hear about non-vegetarians hosting vegetarians and having the dilemma of what to serve. But what happens when you're the vegetarian hosting non-vegetarians--as well as a mom-to-be, and others with specific food allergies (peanuts, shellfish, dairy)?

Speedy lasagna

When I was in high school, I had some friends over and made them lasagna. (My first dinner party!) By then, I'd made lasagna a couple of times, and would continue to do so over the years, and for some reason, probably because I was younger and I'm not a natural cook, I struggled with it. It just seemed so labor-intensive--making sauce (although back then I just used jarred stuff), all those ingredients. This was also back before those no-boil lasagna noodles came out. Oh boy are those a savior now.

Eggs in tomato sauce

One day, while contemplating what to eat, I came across this recipe for eggs in tomato sauce. It is a concept I'd heard of before (aka eggs in purgatory) but had not appealed to me until just then.

It seemed super easy, and I am a big fan of sunny-side up eggs (runny, but not too runny), which I'll put on top of kale, polenta, spaghetti squash, etc.

Universal tomato sauce

Sometimes recipes that require cooking something before making the main part annoy me. This is one of the reasons I don't like making beans from scratch, because I have to cook the beans as an entirely separate process before making the actual dish, like hummus or soup or chili or whatever.


Dishes requiring tomato sauce of some sort are a major culprit as well ("Major Culprit"), like baked pasta dishes. Oh sure, I could just use a jar of some branded pasta sauce, but I refuse. (I know, I just make it harder on myself.) So despite what I just said about not wanting to make a dish before making the main dish, I do go through the effort to make this fairly simple and universal tomato sauce because it can be used for many purposes.

Chana masala

I've already written about my love of chana masala.


Now, I can finally ban the pre-packaged form from my kitchen! (Next on my list: using dried beans.)

Brunch

I love brunch. I like going to brunch, and preparing brunch. I have visions of hosting one of those decadent brunches where I'm not rushed and overwhelmed and can greet my guests with a mimosa.

And then I decided to go pick up my dry cleaning.

The first and last suppers

Wow, what happened to April?


Oh that's right... I moved!