Tuesday, February 1, 2011

"You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients." ~ Julia Child

Happy February!!! The month of Valentine's Day, Groundhog Day, Alex's (lil sis) Birthday, Swedish winter sports break and some other things... I am just surprised by how quickly January has flown by!

So, maybe you have seen it on Facebook but this week I plan to cook NOTHING in it that has pasta or plain old tomato sauce.  I know, this greatly limits my usual routine, but that is sort of the point, the other is there is that saying "you are what you eat" if this is true, I am spaghetti... and nothing very exciting.  My meal variety has greatly decreased now that Sam isn't cooking for me everyday... I am very appreciative of his imagination and constant devotion to cooking... if it was up to me... I would be spaghetti.  So, here goes the culinary mind broadening... wow, that does not make much sense!

Sunday night, after kicking a bunch of 17yr olds out the kitchen at like 8:30pm so I could start making dinner I made pepper steaks with sauteed bell peppers and onions (with some stir fry sauce) and rice!  It was delicious!  I was very proud of myself, I cooked STEAKS!  I accidentally over cooked them a bit because they were thin and I think I let them rest covered too long, but they were still good!

Monday at school I worked in the hot shop and worked on making wine glass stems again!  Here are some pictures of what I made on Friday!!

 Turns out Sigrid wrote my whole name on the glasses.  Usually there is just a "T" since I am the only one here... but I keep finding more and more glasses with my WHOLE name scribbled across them!
 "Shes got legssssss and she knows how to use them!!"  
The teachers and students here call the stem part legs sometimes.  But, damn, isn't that nice?

So, MondayI did more of the same, none as good.  I saved one weird stripy one, but it was more just to see it later then actually being any good.  Then I went to evening class in the cold shop.  I was working on that diamond piece, polishing it up and hoping to actually finish it FINALLY.  I was drying it off to look at it properly and then whoops, BANG, loud cursing, and then slowly picking it up off the floor.  Yep, just call me Miss Butterfingers! WHAT THE HELL?!?!??!  I just picked it up, put it away, even though I really wanted to drop it on the floor again and smash it into a million pieces, and walked away.  I walked away super pissed.  I worked on it some today (tuesday) with Tove's help and I was calm enough to take a picture of the damage:

 See the chips, front and center?

 And on a few bottom corners as well.  Boo!

But, this has resulted in me trying to keep it.  I am going to put another 16 facets in it.  Since the chips are on the corners I am going to cut those corners away... soon it will be a 32 facet diamond vase... just how I wanted it ;) ha! F-you diamond!

I continued to work on wineglasses again today with Vegard and Rosanne.  I don't know if our current trio works so well.  Vegard is very go, go, go and Rosanne is a little slower and then gets a bit stressed by his energy and it leads to a slightly awkward working situation.  Poor Rosanne, today she was having a horrible day, she burned herself, I burned her pants by accident, she struggled with the stems, then got those and struggled with the feet.  She was just having a hard time which was slightly compounded by the working situation I think.  Maybe tomorrow we should get a different group together... I don't know who that would be though... We will see.  Maybe the teachers will just tell us who to work with.  

Tonight, I made enchiladas! I was inspired by Pioneer Woman's Recipe but had to alter it some due to being in Sweden (can't find cilantro or proper enchilada sauce), not properly reading packages (bought pork instead of beef AGAIN!), and crappy kitchen (stove sucks and the 2 knifes we have are HORRIBLE).  Here is the break down... since I am sure you are super curious about my weird enchiladas!  The weird thing, I think, is having to explain to everyone what that is and why it is different from just a taco... guess Sweden is pretty far from Mexico.
 Pork (should be beef), parsley (should be cilantro), green onion, green chilis, soft tortillas (should be corn), cheese (should be a big block of sharp cheddar... couldn't find it either!), onion, taco sauce (should be enchilada sauce or red sauce) and black olives (surprisingly good in here.. salty and tangy!).
 Baked to a bubbly and melty perfection!
and served with a side of salsa!  Tomorrow for dinner I think I will eat some corn with them :)
Yes, I know taco sauce and salsa are tomato sauces, but not normal, plain old tomato! Right?

Maybe, before I come back to the states I can master a Julia Child recipe... ratatouille?

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