Out sick today

I pick scabs during commercial breaks

Man, it's FUH-REEEZING! And it'll be even colder in the following days. To top it off, Mike Woods said there will be about two to three inches of snow tomorrow too. It's so unfair! How come the west coast gets to enjoy temps in the 70's? Haihechu!

Also, have you guys seen the Slap-Chop commercial? Fast forward to the 50 second mark. Wait for eeet...


"You're gonna love my nuts!" Heh, that's what he said.

Blogger interrupted

Blogging is temporarily suspended due to the American Idol premiere and will resume tomorrow. In the meantime, here's something to tide you over.

Excellent! Better than mama

Sometimes I get into one of these moods where I pretend that I'm hosting a cooking show. I do the dialogue, giving tips on how to marinade or how to chop ingredients correctly. I also share trivia about whatever dish I'm cooking. The only thing I don't do is put on an apron because I think they only look good when Gerd is the one wearing them. Yummeh!

Tonight I felt like channeling the cooking sage that is Cooking Mama.

Dinner is served!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present Anne's Cajun Tilapia Fillet. Only took me 15 minutes to cook it which is great since I'm always hungry by the time I get home and there's always nothing to eat since I'm the master chef at home. The photo doesn't do justice to how vibrant the colors of this dish are. *shakes head* I swear I'm gonna get me a Nikon D90.

I marinated the tilapia fillets in Cajun sauce then pan-seared them. I'm very careful in cooking fish because it can overcook easily and I want my fish to be really juicy, as you can see in the pic. Also, overcooking makes the meat tough, which is a no-no. You can do several variations of this dish. You can broil, bake or grill the fish if you'd like. But as I said, I was in a hurry so I just pan-seared it.

When it was done, I plated it and drizzled olive oil on it. Oh, and please don't say E-V-O-O. I get so annoyed listening to Rachel Ray. I think she's OA. I like her recipes but I don't like her. Whatever. So add a little olive oil, steamed veggies and my super secret Cajun sauce and you're done! You can add mashed potatoes, mushrooms or whatever sides you want. I'm trying to eat healthier so no rice or potatoes for me. Boohoo.

Another reason why I'm trying to eat healthy is because of what happened last night. See, I bought these yummy mini eclairs. You know, the ones with the cream filling? They were really good and I thought it would be a fantastic idea if I took a picture of them and shared it with you. So I bite into one and take a photo. Only, it came out blurred. So I take another one and bite into it. This time I adjusted the setting of the camera and took a pic but I didn't like how it came out unappetizing so I took another eclair and bit into it. You can see where this is going. Long story short, I finished all the eclairs without getting a decent pic. So sad. But if I had a Nikon D90 I could have just eaten one freaking eclair and gotten an awesome picture! Somebody please give me a D90!

In other news, I can't help but count down the days til April. I'm getting so excited just thinking about it! And a little nervous too. Can't wait!

Better than microwave dinners

Granny is my aunt's neighbor. She's originally from Poland and she always brings us this dish. I don't really know what you call it but it's good! I shall name it...Polish Pasta!

You'll need the following:

I don't really cook using exact measurements, I kinda play it by how it smells and how it looks so if you're one of those people who are anal about stuff like that, I would like to apologize.

Melt butter in a pan and add finely-chopped onions to it. You'd want to make sure that there is enough butter to kinda caramelize the onions. Not even sure if that's the correct term but that's what I call browned onions that taste sweet so there. While you're waiting for the onions you can start cooking the pasta. I prefer using bow ties but you can use whatever you want.

Add a pinch of salt to the pasta. It makes it taste better, trust me. While the pasta is cooking, make sure you check on your onions because you don't want them to burn. You'll know they're almost ready when they look like this:

You see how the onions look transparent? That's how you tell that the onions are cooked but for this dish, we want them to be brown. So by now your pasta's cooked and you're just waiting for the onions to be ready. Drain the pasta and add the cottage cheese.

Then you can add the onions but remove any excess butter as we don't want the dish to be too oily.

The onions are darker in real life, it's just that our kitchen has bright lighting. Just mix up all the ingredients and add salt and pepper to taste. If you like onions you can use more, if you hate them then use less. Like I said, you can cook this dish the way you like it but I've always found that two onions is just right for the flavors not to overpower each other and instead work together.

And here is the Polish pasta. Tadaaah!

The only hard part about making this dish is chopping up the onions. Sniff.

Jinggam bells

I forgot to show you the Christmas card that mama sent me. It's one of those three-fold cards. The kind that has a lot of words printed on it. The kind that you'll read only the first three lines before putting it back on the rack to find a less brain-taxing card. This is why I usually go for the funny cards. Or the colorful cartoony ones.

*plays Silent Night, Holy Night*

The cover reads:

"Daughter, This Christmas
I Want You to Know
What a Special Person
I Think You Are

Daughter, you are beautiful;
you fill me up with joy.
Within you is an ideal,
a voice of youth,
and a promise of achievement
still to come.
Within your hands
are special gifts and talents.
Within your mind is the
source of your dreams..."

The inside flap reads:

"Within you, Daughter,
is he strength to carry
your dreams to completion.
Within your heart is the desire
to meet the world on your own terms,
and I never doubt that you will.
You are strong; you are wise;
you have a dream.
You have a spirit and confidence
I never knew;
you have faith.
You are your own person,
and you always will be.
Within you is something
so precious and rare.
Within you is the promise
of the future,
and I believe in you.

-Jean Lamey

I Love You So Much...
Merry Christmas"

This card would've been perfect except for THAT word. Spare me the jokes will ya? Ugh.

While I was reading it, I had a vision of my mom at a card store? I dunno. That store in SM. What's the name? Whatever. Oh wait! I got it! National Book Store! So I can see her reading the card, trying to decide which is the one she liked best. The image was so vivid it was weird. And I'm pretty sure my mom wrote like a hundred words on the card. If you know my mom you know she likes writing long letters. So I gently pull back the inside flap and there it was, in all it's shining glory. The heart of the card:

Tadaaah!

Yes folks. No need to transcribe. It's all there. Mom of few words. This card is a real winner. My mom is hilarious!

Not.

At least I didn't sleep on the train

Bad day at work today.

No. This is not a foodie blog.

Apologies for not posting pics of the chicken relleno yesterday. My co-worker brought spinach fettuccine with turkey marinara sauce so I had that for lunch instead. But! It's better late than never.

Now tell me, who do you love?

It was raining all day today and it was freezing so it felt really good to sit on heated seats on the train. So relaxing. Too relaxing in fact. I was so relaxed that I fell asleep on the train. I get off on the 7th stop from the 33rd Street Station so I figured I could take a power nap while listening to Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye. Oh yeah, chilling to mood music and enjoying the heat on my ass.

I guess I got too much into it that this guy had to wake me up because I was the only one left inside the train! Gaaaaah...If the guy hadn't tapped my shoulder I would still be on the train on the way to the train yard. Gaaaaah...

Goes to show I've gotten good at ignoring what my body is telling me. Just got home from work? Go straight to the kitchen and cook dinner. Weekend? Get up at 7 am...at the latest. Horny? Cold shower. Pretty sad huh? I didn't even realize that I was exhausted. I really need to get laid. I mean, erm, yeah. I really do. Heh.

Thank God tomorrow's Thursday and then it'll be awesome Friday! I'm having a post birthday lunch with my co-workers so I'll post pics on Friday when I get home.

Peace out.

Suweeet!

Cupcakes for my sweet tooth: Lady Baltimore, Devil Dog, Sour Cream Spice, German Chocolate and my all time fave, Red Velvet! Got them at Buttercup Bake Shop on 2nd Avenue, between 51st and 52nd. Buttercup is owned by the same woman who opened Magnolia Bakery. Yums!

Work it baby!

I'm back at work. Ugh. The phones were ringing off the hook, my inbox is bursting with emails and the fax machine is going crazy! Hel-looo new year. Pffft.

My co-worker got a call today from this guy who was accusing my boss of stealing a car that he rented in FL. The guy was saying that he was gonna call the cops and have my boss arrested in like, a minute. Their conversation was heating up because the guy was so rude so my co-worker put him on hold. Then we were like, what if it's one of those radio shows where they do prank calls? Like Elvis Duran and the Z Morning Zoo? Yikes!

Long story short, it was a prank call, the guy apologized to my co-worker and they lived happily ever after.

The good thing about today is that I got more birthday presents! I got gift cards, birthday cards, a comfy top and a bracelet. I didn't get anything on my material birthday wish list but gifts are still gifts (though I would've preferred cash) so yay for me! ^_^

What else happened today? Let's see...

Well there was this guy on the subway who kept stomping his feet and waving his left arm. No, he didn't have earphones on. There are a lot of interesting people on the subway. I wish I could take photos of them but I'm scared that they might see me and beat the crap out of me. Hey, it happens. This is New York City you know. Also, my phone refuses to take photos without that click-snap-chik sound. I can't figure out how to make it go on stealth mode.

I had chicken relleno for lunch care of my co-worker. And I'm having it again tomorrow. Yum yum! You know how some people don't like eating the same thing everyday? I'm not one of those. I'll keep eating it until the very thought of it makes me want to throw up. When I was working for Touch Mobile before my friend and I used to have the two piece Chickenjoy with extra rice, extra gravy and large pineapple juice for lunch.

Everyday.

For six weeks.

Including weekends.

Gag.

Sigh. I don't think the relleno will last as long though. I think it'll only be good until Friday. Woe is me! Ooh, I know! I'll take pics and share it with you guys. That way, we can all imagine we're eating the relleno even if we're eating some crap like pork and beans (yuck). Am I the best or what?

Can't wait to take pics of the relleno tomorrow! ^_^