Dinner and a Snack

I made wheat bread today. It's so delicious, I ate almost a whole loaf by myself. I kept justifying it by telling myself that it was healthy - I used wheat flour, after all. Then my mom and I made joint-effort stir fry for dinner. I've eaten so many mushrooms this week already, it's almost funny. But they're so wonderful. And so are carrots and broccoli and snow peas. Especially served over rice and eaten with chopsticks.

 

 If you're interested (and you should be, this bread is beyond words tasty when it's fresh out of the oven, and super addicting - too bad it doesn't suppress appetite), the bread recipe can be found here. I substituted 3/4 c. of bread flour for wheat flour, so that there was a whole cup of wheat flour in my bread. The result was a little flatter than usual, but that also might have been because I tend to squash risen loaves when I try to cut x's in them.

The Lunchtime Delectables

Since coming back home after the completion of my freshman year of college, I've spent hours upon hours in the kitchen. Eating in a cafeteria for four months made me realize how much I love the freedom to put together my own meals - not just dinner and dessert, which were the kinds of foods I previously preferred making. Breakfast has become much more than a simple bowl of cereal, and lunch usually involves tortillas and a large quantity of strawberries. Greek yogurt is also a staple - I developed an affinity for it at school by eating fruit flavors. The results are colorful, healthy, and most importantly, delicious.

Frozen strawberries blended with Greek yogurt and fresh-squeezed orange juice, topped with strawberries, bananas, oats, shredded coconut, and a drizzle of honey

Turkey quesadilla on a fresh-cooked tortilla with avocado, tomato, and sauteed mushrooms

Fried egg sandwich with avocado, sauteed mushrooms, and tomatoes on a whole wheat English muffin

Fried egg sandwich with strawberries and honey vanilla Greek yogurt

The Beginning

I love food.
Okay, that statement really should be qualified. I love good food. Someone asked me the other day if I liked to eat a lot, and I immediately answered no. I like to eat a moderate amount of food - enough to enable me to function properly. And I like my sustenance to taste good. I don't enjoy eating just for the sake of eating. I like to create and discover and explore. I love adventures. Why shouldn't food be one? There are endless possibilities and combinations and flavors to experience, and I want to try as many of them as I can. So I'm starting a blog to chronicle the culinary pursuits that began when I was two years old and needed a stool to reach the counter so I could help my mom bake cookies. In my lifetime I won't even begin to scratch the surface of the endless potential concoctions that can be created with the near-limitless ingredients available on planet earth, but as long as my slice of the culinary universe is a tasty one, I'm perfectly okay with that.