Part 1

So, I've literally been baking all day. It was 90 degrees and I was baking. This is because I volunteered to make dessert for tomorrow's cookout (which its funny I offered anyway, because I never cook dessert) so I had to bake it all today. However, its worth it because I have two very tasty desserts for everyone tomorrow.First I made a brand new recipe, S'more Thumbprint Cookies.
You can find the recipe here: http://recipecircus.com/recipes/fiveluckystarz/COOKIES/S39more_thumbprint_cookies.htmlNext I made a patriotic cake.
Its an angel food cake baked in a 13 X 9 pan. I frosted it with a combo of vanilla pudding and cool whip, then used blueberries and strawberries to make the stars and stripes. And yes, there are 50 stars and 7 red stripes. I am such a dork!

Something New

Okay, so up until today I had never cooked fish. Well, actually, that is not entirely true, I made fish and chips once from scratch, but that doesn't count because its fried and everything tastes good fried. A few days ago I turned over a new leaf in regards to food and I am trying to eat healthier now. So tonight's menu was teriyaki salmon with roasted asparagus and spiced chickpeas.

I marinated the salmon for a few hours in a homemade asian marinade. This consisted of soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, rice vinegar, and brown sugar.

When ready to cook:

Coat a skillet with cooking spray and heat to medium high.
Place salmon skin-side down for about a minute.
Take salmon out of pan and pull the skin off.
Turn the heat down to medium. Place salmon back in pan and cook five minutes on each side.

Roasted Asparagus:

Coat asparagus in 1 T of garlic flavored olive oil (I used 2 t. and thought it could use just a bit more)
Sprinkle generously with salt
Lay in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes for crisp-tender asparagus.

Spiced Chickpeas:

Find this recipe here: http://greenlitebites.com/2010/02/22/simply-spiced-chickpeas/

Noodle Soup...er...Chicken-y Noodles?

So, I spent the day at home today recovering from a stomach bug that woke me up at 2 am this morning. Up until about twenty minutes ago, all that I had eaten today was 2 pieces of toast. But...I started to get hungry, and I wanted food. So, I tried to make some noodle soup using rice noodles ('cause rice is supposed to be good for your stomach after you've been sick). It turned out really really good. Yum! The only problem was that I added too many noodles, and ended up with chicken-y noodles instead of noodle soup.

First, I chopped up half an onion and sauteed it in a small saucepan with a tablespoon of margarine and some rotisserie seasonings. When it was translucent, I added one can of chicken broth, a packet of chicken bouillon, and a handful of frozen peas. Once that started to boil, I added the rice noodles and cooked them for 10 minutes in the boiling broth. I will totally make this again next time I need an easy tasty meal!

Lost Picture

A picture of the hot dog chili sauce I mentioned ages ago!

Empanadas

Okay, so they weren't really empanadas, but I thought that title sounded better than empanada-ish things.

First, I browned one pound ground turkey in a skillet with one chopped onion. Then I added a small can of tomato paste, 4 t. chili powder, and 1 t. salt. I continued to cook it for another couple of minutes. Then I covered the meat mixture and put it in the fridge to cool.

Once it was cool, I laid out several won ton wrappers and brushed the edges with egg white. I put one tablespoon of the meat mixture in the middle of each wrapper, then folded them in half. I baked them in a 400 degree oven for 8 minutes. The recipe would have made 60 empanadas, but I got tired of the wrapping way before I made that many.

I also made dessert empanadas. I filled some with nutella, some with peanut butter and jelly, and some with mini peanut butter cups. The nutella ones were amazing! The chocolate-peanut butter ones were okay, although my lip got hit with some lava (aka molten hot peanut butter). The peanut butter and jelly ones were a wash, the jelly became a liquid and just leaked out all over the place.