christmas dinner

every year my family has a christmas dinner tradition - we pull a cooking assignment out of a hat and then you have to make something for christmas dinner! example, this year i pulled "side dish." my brother got "appetizer" and dad got "potato." mom is always in charge of cooking the roast and the yorkshire pudding, so the rest of us have to make everything else.

i was set on making mac and cheese for my side dish, but realized no one really had the responsibility of bringing a vegetable to the table. so i sighed, then looked up vegetable recipes. i found an interesting recipe for broccoli pudding. ok i know, that sounds kind of gross, but if you've ever had corn pudding, then you would not cringe at the name. it's yummy, trust me.

recipe can be found HERE.

my brother made bacon wrapped water chestnuts for his appetizer, but i didn't take any pictures. people ate them up too fast.

dad made twice baked mashed potatoes. they were really good, but took forever to reheat. everything else was ready except for those potatoes. we ended up sticking them in the microwave. they were really delicious, though. his recipe is from idahopotato.com but there a million recipes and i have no idea which one he used.

and the beautiful roast and yorkshire pudding courtesy of mom.



YUM.

cheesy grilled cheese

i'm pretty picky when it comes to cheese. some might even say it's a miracle that i'm eating cheese at all (i never used to go near the stuff). but one morning i woke up and craved some greasy, stretchy, ooey gooey cheesy goodness. and i was craving that same goodness tonight.

i had half a loaf of leftover french bread, so i thought it would make a great sandwich. i also had some leftover pasta sauce from dinner last night. i decided that a mozzarella and marinara sandwich would taste good. but the best part - the parmesan crust. one of my friends in high school had a chef as a dad, so she had a few good kitchen tips. one day when i was at her house she made a grilled cheese sandwich, but spread some butter and parmesan cheese on the bread before putting it in the pan. so i remembered this friend, and remembered her awesome bread trick, and i did it.

if you want a crispy parmesan bread, spread some butter over one side of the bread, and then pat some parmesan cheese (i just used some good ol' kraft grated cheese) over your butter. put the butter/cheese side down in the pan and let it get crispy. once you start to get a nice golden orange color, add your sandwich fillers and let it all get hot and gooey. then indulge your cheesiness nature and eat it up!

indian food

i am craving indian food right at this very moment.  if i were living in berkeley, i'd call India Palace and order enough food for free delivery. i would kill for some of their chicken pasanda (boneless chicken cooked in a mild coconut and almond based curry sauce - a good dish for the beginners)

YUM.

INDIA PALACE - BERKELEY, CA

tomato and basil pizza

ngan+kat+pizza dough+hunger=one successful pizza

berkeley, 2006