It has been difficult to update with no internet yet hooked up at our new house!
We just moved in a week ago and it has been extremely hectic! I also worked more hours this week than ever, and so I've been even more exhausted...
Our house is lovely -- quite close to downtown, USF, work, a dog park, and shopping centers/gas stations, but it does not feel that way at all! Our neighborhood is quiet and full of the kind of greenery that makes mine and darling's hearts sing
The other day we woke up to fog and I had to take pictures. This view is of the trees around and above our yard; for some pictures i had to hold the camera over my head and over our wooden fence
How wonderful it is to be able to take your coffee surrounded by so much green~ I love our tiny yard, small as it is, because of the trees...
Since I have been working so much, I don't have time to come up with elaborate meals. Further, most of our dishes and such are still in storage and I had to rely on a cursed wok and a tiny pan for all of my cooking!!!!! Consequently, I stuck to really simple things that don't burn too much (hot sauce shrimp?! Ohhhh the smoke... black black smoke that made us cry, but the shrimp turned out deadly-delicious!), and a lot of soup.
Lentil soup. I made it from scratch several times over this week (did I mention the single pan I have is really inconvenient and small?), based on mum's old recipe.
This is a very simple soup that is dependent on its seasoning. I grew up on "poor-people" meals (because of the cheapness of ingredients; watch Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and you will further know what I mean) like this and I still find them more satisfying and filling than anything I have yet to try of foreign cuisines. Mum's cooking is #1, and as I told darling, I will be perfectly happy if the only dish I ever cooked to perfection was this lentil soup. He has grown to love it also, if his repeated requests for it are anything to go by.
Paired once with sauteed potatoes with garlic and spinach salad with home-made dressing (vinegar, olive oil, garlic, feta):
Yumyumyumyum! Simple food, freshly-made is best!~
Next on my to-conquer list: "bob" soup (bean soup, Bulgarian style), banitsa, sarmichki and --- I definitely need to make some stuffed peppers soon too!!!! Stuffed peppers are my favourite too.
This morning, my sister and her boyfriend (our room-mates!) finally arrived, so Christmas we'll have a full house like I hoped! They brought their three dogs, so now there are as many dogs as human tenants in our little two-story abode!~ We are definitely a dog-loving bunch.
We just moved in a week ago and it has been extremely hectic! I also worked more hours this week than ever, and so I've been even more exhausted...
Our house is lovely -- quite close to downtown, USF, work, a dog park, and shopping centers/gas stations, but it does not feel that way at all! Our neighborhood is quiet and full of the kind of greenery that makes mine and darling's hearts sing
The other day we woke up to fog and I had to take pictures. This view is of the trees around and above our yard; for some pictures i had to hold the camera over my head and over our wooden fence
How wonderful it is to be able to take your coffee surrounded by so much green~ I love our tiny yard, small as it is, because of the trees...
Since I have been working so much, I don't have time to come up with elaborate meals. Further, most of our dishes and such are still in storage and I had to rely on a cursed wok and a tiny pan for all of my cooking!!!!! Consequently, I stuck to really simple things that don't burn too much (hot sauce shrimp?! Ohhhh the smoke... black black smoke that made us cry, but the shrimp turned out deadly-delicious!), and a lot of soup.
Lentil soup. I made it from scratch several times over this week (did I mention the single pan I have is really inconvenient and small?), based on mum's old recipe.
This is a very simple soup that is dependent on its seasoning. I grew up on "poor-people" meals (because of the cheapness of ingredients; watch Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and you will further know what I mean) like this and I still find them more satisfying and filling than anything I have yet to try of foreign cuisines. Mum's cooking is #1, and as I told darling, I will be perfectly happy if the only dish I ever cooked to perfection was this lentil soup. He has grown to love it also, if his repeated requests for it are anything to go by.
Paired once with sauteed potatoes with garlic and spinach salad with home-made dressing (vinegar, olive oil, garlic, feta):
Yumyumyumyum! Simple food, freshly-made is best!~
Next on my to-conquer list: "bob" soup (bean soup, Bulgarian style), banitsa, sarmichki and --- I definitely need to make some stuffed peppers soon too!!!! Stuffed peppers are my favourite too.
This morning, my sister and her boyfriend (our room-mates!) finally arrived, so Christmas we'll have a full house like I hoped! They brought their three dogs, so now there are as many dogs as human tenants in our little two-story abode!~ We are definitely a dog-loving bunch.