I don’t know what it is about the time between Thanksgiving and EidalHanuChrismaKwan©, but it is a magical time for me. Most people catch a cold or the flu. I catch the cooking bug! All I want to do is cook and bake from just before Thanksgiving until just about Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Friday, I started with all of the elements for a proper Mexican breakfast. I made a pot of black beans. The turkey bacon, fried sweet plantains, yellow corn tortillas/arepas, and fried eggs ensued on Saturday night after the Flushing Cheap Eats Tour. The husband lost his ability to speak coherently somewhere between the queso fresco and the lime sour cream at brunch on Sunday.
Saturday was the food tour, so we ended up too full for dinner, but my pantry is flush with ingredients from all of the grocery shopping we did after lunch.
Sunday, after a proper brunch complete with tomato slices dipped in chili infused vinegar (thanks, Nina!), I set to work on the chocolate peppermint brownies. Chewy butterscotch blondies quickly followed suit because I didn’t want my sweet, baked goods affected by the aromas from the savory dishes I had planned for the day.
I baked an egg white frittata (like a quiche with no crust or an open-faced omelet) with diced sweet peppers, onions, garlic, spinach, and chilies in a quarter sheet pan. Half of the pan I sprinkled shredded cheese over while spreading fresh goat cheese over the other half of the baked eggs. I divided it up into 24 rectangles, what should have been 15 servings I stretched to 24. The day before while at JMart at the New World Mall, I had bought 24 whole wheat, spring onion, steamed rolls – perfect for hearty winter breakfast sandwiches. I assembled all of the sandwiches and managed to freeze 2/3 of the sandwiches leaving plenty for the week ahead.
With two packs of ground turkey and a tube of ground beef style meat substitute, I cranked out Taiwanese “pork” sauce over mixed grains rice, turkey/cabbage/shallot pan-fried dumplings, and veggie pan-fried dumplings. With no room left in the freezer, I refrained from making the wontons. No Taiwanese “pork” sauce can be seen without Taiwanese cucumber salad, so that I had ready from Friday night as well.
Oh, what a productive weekend!
Stereotype Rebel 