Tonight, I was  lazy and did not want to cook.  I was even willing to go to the store to just buy some instant noodles. (BAD!) But then realized that we had some leftover chicken that was used from making chicken bbq sandwiches.  It’s just chicken meat, bbq sauce and buns. Yeah easy.

So I decided to make chicken casserole. I had all the ingredients the recipe called for and then some.  I added asparagus to it.  I loved how it gave extra texture to the dish since it still had a little bit of crunch in it even after it was baked.

I skipped the butter and added onion soup mix. I used 3 cups of egg noodles, about 2 cups of chicken meat, plus 3/4 cup of chicken stock, used half and half instead of milk, and lastly  1/4 cup of cheddar cheese.  Add more stock depending on how saucy you want it.  Don’t salt it anymore, it was salty enough.

Nom nom nom

I realize that I have been doing a lot of food postings.  I want you guys to know that I don’t just cook and eat all the time after I get off from work.  I workout a lot.  Just this week, I went to the gym 3 times. Ran for 40 minutes on Saturday then went hiking on Sunday.  I love eating but one has to balance it out with working out and being fit. I know this recipe is not a healthy one but we don’t eat it all the time.  I’d make this like 3 times a year.  I don’t even remember the last time we made chicken casserole.

So yeah, eat (don’t stuff yourselves) and workout. Oh and stay away from fast food.  It’s the healthy way to go.

This was also the second dish we had this week with black olives.  Might as well use it if we have a Costco sized jar available.  I thought I’d make spaghetti ’cause it was the easiest thing, 30 minutes tops! And that already includes all the chopping.

I used the recipe from the “Pasta” cookbook that I borrowed from my friend last year.  It was the “Quick Tomato Sauce w/ Black Olives and Cream.”  It really was quick and easy.  I pretty much had everything available except for the leeks and cream.  I finished cooking in no time.

One thing I thought though, while the cooking was easy, the photography in between was a bit challenging.  So I give mass props to people who really really do the food design and photography at the same time. I am not posting all the photos.. just an intro and the finished product.  The more I do this, the more I’ll master the lighting and plating.  We’ll see how it goes.

Onions and Leeks

Our plates w/ the annoying olive on the bottom

Hungry Yet?

The chicken is not really from Morocco and I didn’t really smother it with olives. More like, I put the olives in the casserole. Don’t know why smothered is the word.  But hey, it works. It was an amazing dish!

I got the recipe from Saveur.  I originally was just planning on making some pasta with ready made sauce (sacrilege!) since I just got back from the gym, but Nick said he just bought some chicken and it’s in the fridge.  I came home went online to check Saveur.com and searched for some chicken recipes.  I found this and realized that I had all the ingredients!  I didn’t have the green olives so just substituted it with the Kalamata ones that Nick just got from Costco.  One thing I’m sad about is I forgot to garnish it with the parsley. I was too hungry that I completely forgot. Oh well, next time.

I recommend this dish to anyone who wants to make a fast hearty dinner. I’ve already decided that this will be one of those dishes that I’ll be making for our future little kiddies.

What have you guys been cooking for dinner?

One day, to surprise me, Nick came home with chicken wings.  Uncooked chicken wings.

Nick: Hey babe! I have a surprise for you!

He gave me the plastic bag he was holding and then I looked inside. I saw some uncooked chicken wings.

Me: Uh…ok. Chicken wings.

Nick: But I thought you loved chicken wings.

Me: Yeah! The cooked ones!

Nick: Well they’re you’re favorite. I was grocery shopping and I thought I’d get them for you.

Tanya: Ohhhhkayyyy.

Nick: Come on love, I thought you’d like it.

Tanya: I do but a good surprise too is that when I get food, I don’t have to cook it.

Nick: I’m sorry love. I just thought you’d like it.

Tanya: I do like it. It’s just… it’s just that it’s the first time someone has given me uncooked food as a surprise. That’s all.

Nick: Ok. Next time I’ll remember to bring home cooked chicken wings.

I guess this is what makes my husband charming.  HAHA!  Yes it’s sweet that he bought me chicken wings but I think he forgot the part about who’s going to end up cooking it.  Which happened to be me of course and I was happy I did.

I got the recipe from allrecipes.com and adjusted it by adding 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar to balance out the flavors. I wanted something easy to make so I used that recipe.

Establishing Shot

Medium Shot

Close Up

It turned out so good, Nick ate half of what I baked in one sitting.  His surprise ended up to be a good surprise for the two of us.

Here’s to showing you all that I made up for my previous noodle post.  That was really stupid of me to post that entry because it looked pretty disgusting and I know I have an option to delete it but I guess I wanted to show you all the improvements that I’ve made.

Noodle Craving No. 2

One of these days, I’ll take my noodle craving on another level and really make some ramen from scratch. Boiling some pork bones for hours on end.  We’ll see when i’ll get there but for now, I’ll be playing with my new dutch oven first.

My husband is a tiny bit Irish, I’m saying tiny because when I asked him how Irish he was this is what I got:

Me: ”Babe, is your grandfather full Irish?”

Nick: “Emmm… mostly.”

I’m guessing most Americans are the same way. A tiny bit Irish, tiny bit German, tiny bit English… yeah pretty much tiny bit of everything.  Nick I’m guessing has a lot more Italian then German, then English.. then whatever European immigrant decided to live in America back in the day.

Back to what we did during St. Paddy’s.  On the day itself, it was a Wednesday. So Nick and I decided it was best we just make our Irish corned beef and cabbage at home. Have a Guinness and then call it a night. We already celebrated a big St. Paddy’s/birthday at an Irish pub the night before so it was best we just rested.

Nick ready to attack the corned beef

Corned Beef and Cabbage w/ Potato Fingerlings

For the weekend we just went over to a friend’s house to see how Italian’s celebrated St. Paddy’s. I’m not sure if there’s a big clash of the cultures but hey, they’re an amazing Italian family who loves to celebrate anything!

Nick and Lowell

My friend Rebecca and her Dad

Rebecca's Stuffed Cabbage

Lowell's Meat Pie

I love Rebacca.. + the boy who wanted a photo then changed his mind

Nick’s going crazy with the paper that he has to submit on Friday. So there isn’t much husband and wife time together. So to lessen the stress and make him happy, I made some really good linguini with white clam sauce.

It was soooo good. The wine, I’m sure, was the one that made it that good. The sad thing now is that after buying that bottle of white wine, and using only a spoonfulls of it, it just might go to waste since there are no white wine drinkers in this house. So tomorrow I have to figure out what else I can make with white wine before it turns into vinegar. If you have any suggestions I would much appreciate that.

I guess I’ll try and look something up online and see if there are anything else I can make with white wine. For now, all I can do is wait ’til Nick gets done with his homework and maybe we could sneak in a little quality time together.

I will tell you though, I haven’t had fast food in a long time, save for when I was at my niece’s birthday party at McDonald’s in the Philippines. That was Sept of 2009, and before then. I haven’t stepped foot in McDonald’s in years.

I’ve stopped drinking sodas years ago. I don’t drink beer or wine. And because I’m married to Nick, I have slowly learned to cut fat from the beef or pork that I’m eating. I can’t even stand chicken fat anymore. I still eat the skin though. That’s as far as I have gone in terms of eating healthy. Everything else, I eat.

The past few months there’s only one thing I crave for. And if you ask my husband and friends, they all know the answer to that. Ramen!!!!

I haven’t had the chance to make ramen at home so I make do with what I have. Udon.

This is my version of Miso Udon. Instead of Miso Ramen with all the right fixings in it.  Looking at the photo I took, it looks like it was chewed up and spit out.  I just got home, made a quick udon, ate half of it and then decided to take a picture. Good job Tanya!

Anyway, about my ramen cravings, there’s only one place in Seattle that I know is the closest to authentic Japanese ramen and that’s, Samurai Noodle. It’s sad, with all the Japanese in Seattle and there’s only one good ramen place. And with all the Filipinos, why is there no Jollibee to be found? Ok, I’ll save that for another post. I do miss the chicken joy and palabok though.

In 2 months, I think I have gone to Samurai noodle 6 times. And that’s saying a lot since Nick and I don’t usually go to the same place in a month. My technique is to go to Samurai Noodle with different people, that way no one would think I am there all the time. Except maybe for the people that work there.

Also since I have been a big Google Reader fan, I have not only subscribed myself to hundreds of food blogs, but also to ramen blogs. I just discovered this 3 guys who go to different ramen places in Japan. They of course, take the photos, eat the ramen and make a review about it. All in their blog. What a wonderful way to discover Japan. Although, I would probably find myself eating all the sashimi I can get my teeth to bite into.

For now, I have to settle with trying to make my own ramen or just go to Samurai Noodle.

If you live in Seattle, Oregon or Vancouver Canada, can you recommend a good ramen place I have not heard about?

Market Tray

Today we had our Office Christmas Lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel. In the photo (taken with a phone cam) you’ll see what my boss’ husband ordered. It’s their Market Season Tray where all the ingredients are fresh from the Pike Place Market. It’s like a 5 star tv dinner. HAHA! How sad, I just called hotel food tv dinner. No really, it did remind me of it. What with the tray and all. But it was really really good food! I’m glad I didn’t have to pay for it. It was pretty pricey. I thank my bosses for that.

Tray 2

I ordered the clam chowder, beef cheeks, fries and dessert pictured above. It was really good. The cheeks came shredded and shaped into a burger. I was expecting to get a beef that I would actually use a knife to cut into but oh well, it was what my bosses husband called “chewed up beef.” Don’t get me wrong, it was flavorful, but just wasn’t the texture I was expecting. It was like corned beef in a can texture. It was also my first time to try beef cheeks. I will not end my beef cheeks exploration here. I am sure there are other ways other restaurants serve this. Overall though, I was happy with what I got.

After our lunch, the manager of the Four Seasons gave us a tour of the hotel. Mostly to see the paintings of Pacific Northwest artists. He even took us to the presidential suite, which was like what… 5 times bigger than our apartment. One thing though, if I actually stayed or lived in a building like that in the downtown area, the one thing I won’t like is not being able to walk around naked with the windows open. My neighbors would see me right away. I mean it did have an amazing view of the Puget Sound but still… people on the other side of the building will be able to see me. Hey I don’t walk around naked all the time. I just like my privacy…. and walking around the apartment naked.

It was a fun time… we started lunch at 1pm and left the hotel at around 4:30pm. We obviously enjoyed ourselves. This is what I love about where I work.