The Wedge of Light

I know it is a weird combination... potato wedges with pasta! Driving home from work this afternoon, I had a very bad craving for fries... instead of driving thru Wendy's... I decided to make my own.

4 large potatoes, unpeeled and scrubbed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp cajun spice seasoning

Preheat oven to 400c

Cut each potato lengthwise into 4 slices. Then cut each slice into 2 wedgess.

Place potatoes in a large bowl. Add olive oil and cajun spice. Toss well to coat potatoes evenly with oil and seasoning.

Transfer potatoes to a large baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Spread evenly in a single layer. Bake for 20 mins. Turn wedges over and bake another 25 mins, until golden brown on the inside and tender on the inside.

Makes 4 servings..

Good thing with home made potato wedges is that there is no deep frying and it is only 280 calories per serving!

Seafood Pasta with Pesto Cream Sauce

Got this recipe from "The Daily Struggles of the Demestic Un Goddess"

1/2 lb frozen calamari (I used frozen seafood medley as I could not find frozen calamari last night at Loblaws)
1/2 lb frozen scallops (I figured I am using frozen seafood medley, I did not really need scallops)
1 lb imitation crab (Joe is not a big friend of imitation crab... he only likes it when it is in sushi, so I used frozen shrimps)

1 onion
1 jar marinated artichokes
1 jar roasted red peppers
1/2 jar oil-packed sundried tomatoes
1 small jar of pesto
1 tomato
lots of garlic
1 cup of 1% milk (recipe calls for evaporated milk, but I did not have any, and was too lazy to go out and get it)
parmesan cheese
1 bag of pasta (recipe calls for tortoglioni but I went with penne, after all, they look almost the same!)

1. cook pasta in a large pot of water according to instructions on the package
2. heat a touch of olive oil in a large skillet, add seafood, onion and garlic
3. cook in medium heat until almost done.
4. chop the roasted red peppers, sundried tomatoes, artichokes and fresh tomato
5. add all ingredients to the pan. Add pesto and milk
6. grate parmesan cheese over pan
8. serve sauce over pasta, top with parmesan!

Diary of a Cooking Challenged...

I have a feeling that my blog will eventually turn into a food blog.

I started this blog when I was planning the wedding last year, so at that time, it was a wedding blog so all friends and families could get update on the wedding planning. When the wedding was over, I once thought about stop writing the blog as I did not know what to write about... until recently... when I was flipping through Eat Shrink and be Merry... why not turn the blog into a food blog...

So, here I am... sharing with you my newly founded hobby... diary of a cooking challenged.

I am not a good cook... when I first moved out to Ottawa in 2001, my mom came out to Ottawa with me for 4 weeks, just to make sure I had food and clean clothes. For those 22 years living home... I was spoiled. I never had to cook and clean. My only duty was getting good grades at school. Until I decided to move to Ottawa alone, things changed. I relied on my mom to give me a crash course on housekeeping and cooking 101 during those 4 weeks. My poor mom... while I was at home during the day, she stayed at the hotel, writing recipes for me. On the weekend, instead of touring the new city and discovering the city jewels, we stayed at the hotel (luckily the company I worked for got me a fully furnished unit with a kitchenette) and cooked.

4 weeks went by fast, and the night before my mom left, I was lost and sad. I was sad as the time had come for me to say goodbye to my mom, and I was just about to begin a new journey of my own. I was lost as I knew cooking and housekeeping was not my game. My mom started teaching me how to sort laundry (dark vs white), and I asked my mom, "So I sort the laundry into two piles, the dark and the white, and then I put them in the washer... but they will be mixed once they are in the washer... so why waste time sorting them?" My mom sighed and she said, "Well, call me at home next time when you need to do laundry."

For the first two years living by myself in Ottawa, I had accumulated a lot of white tee-shirts that had a stash of pink, orange or blue here and there! At the end of the second year in Ottawa, I had decided not to wear white again. Until this day, it is rare to see a white tee shirt in my closet.

Uninstalling a Husband...

UNINSTALLING A HUSBAND



Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as
Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as
NBA 5.0,
NFL 3.0 and
Golf Clubs 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate



DEAR DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.

If that application works as designed, Husband1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1.

Please note that Beer 6. 1 is a very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend:
Cooking 3.0 and
Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck Babe!

Tech Support

Goody Two Chews

I love baking on the weekends... usually sunday afternoons after church.

I made this cranberries clusters a month ago, and it was soooo yummy and easy to make that Joe asked me all the time to make it again.

1/3 cup light peanut butter
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 egg whites
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 1/2 cups low fat granola
3/4 cup dried cranberries

Preheat over to 250F. Spray a 12-cup muffin with cooking spray and set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat together peanut butter and maple syrup on a medium speed of electric mixer. Add egg whites and pumpkin pie spice and beat again until smooth.

Stir in granola and cranberries. Divide mixture evenly among muffin cups. Bake on middle oven rack for 45 mins. Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack before removing clusters from pan. Store in an airtight container.