Eggs in Tomato Sauce

This recipe looked and sounded really good, but to be honest I wasn't 100% impressed. That's probably my own fault, considering I overcooked my eggs and they ended up hardboiled instead of runny and delicious. But I did enjoy making the tomato sauce, and it was very easy to do. It was a little sweeter than I'd normally make it, due to the canned San Marzano tomatoes, but it went well with ground turkey and whole wheat pasta the next day.

Pumpkin Scones

I had pumpkin left over from my batch of chocolate chip cookies, and decided to try my hand at making scones. I'd heard before that they were a pain to make, but I'm generally up for a baking challenge.

They were more difficult to make than cookies, because the batter is very sticky and you have to cut it into squares. But they turned out beautifully, despite my very rough measuring tactics, and I actually enjoyed the gooey process. I put raisins and walnuts in mine for more of a mid-afternoon tea sort of scone, but dark chocolate would go well in them if you wanted to serve them as a light dessert with coffee.

Going Greek

Cooking dinner at my place has become somewhat of a weekly thing with my friends here. The first time we did it, we kept things simple with an array of Greek appetizers that we easily made a meal out of. Cheese, grapes, olives, tomatoes, pita, hummus, and tzaziki were easy and took very little time to prepare. I made the tzaziki (cucumber-yogurt sauce with lemon, garlic and fresh herbs), and Dan brought two types of hummus, one regular and one flavored with Nepali curry, that he made using his brand-new emulsion blender. I also broiled some zucchini with olive oil and cheese to round out the meal.

Vegetarian Lasagna in a Pumpkin.

Don't tell me you're already sick of hearing about pumpkins, because I'm here to tell you that it's not going to end until springtime.

This recipe was the most epic culinary feat I have ever accomplished, and there is no way I could have done it without a team of awesome, hungry friends who chopped, seeded, sauteed, stirred, and chopped some more. By the time these babies came out of the oven, we were all starving. But it was worth the wait!

Whole Wheat Carrot Cake Muffins

I am a sweets-for-breakfast kind of person. Eggs and bacon simply do not appeal to me in the wee hours of the morning, and as a child I always had room for one more pancake. Let's be serious, I probably still do. So a breakfast muffin is my kind of morning treat, especially if it's healthy. I didn't have "spelt flour" on hand (seriously, who does?) so I substituted whole wheat flour, and used brown sugar in place of whatever hippie sugar substitute is suggested in the recipe. I also added walnuts and dried apricots to mine. They tasted dense and healthy, perfect for breakfast or a snack, but not a dessert. Exactly what I was looking for.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are quite possibly the best things I have ever baked. They were soft, almost like the top of a muffin, and had just the right amount of pumpkin flavor without being overwhelming. I used an actual bar of fancy dark chocolate chopped into rough pieces, and the flavor combination was astounding. If you have access to canned pumpkin (or an entire afternoon free, if you have to use fresh pumpkin like me), you should go make these cookies right now. Seriously, go do it. Now.

A Few Recommendations

I don't always photograph my meals before I eat them, despite how it may look (considering my ability to begin a food blog and furnish it with quite a few entries literally overnight). But here are a few things I've cooked recently that I'd wholeheartedly recommend, sans pictures:

Curried Chicken Penne with Fresh Mango Chutney was pretty labor-intensive, but very flavorful. Next time, I'd serve it over brown rice instead of pasta.

Mediterranean Chicken with Potatoes was very filling and tasted great served hot or cold. It also made a ton of food, and I do love leftovers . . .

Zucchini, Cherry Tomato, and Fresh Ricotta Pasta was light and delicious. Who knew you could make ricotta in fifteen minutes on the stove?! I would use the ricotta and mint as a garnish on the top next time instead of mixing it in with everything before serving; the meal became decidedly less attractive when I did that.

Chicken with Dried Plums and Sage

Fresh sage may be my favorite herb, especially in the fall and winter. It has such a comforting taste, and it makes the kitchen smell amazing. I loved this whole meal, and would definitely make it for company. I served mine with green beans and wild rice, as the recipe suggested, and thought it was a perfect trio. Bear with my shoddy photography--it looked better in real life, I promise.

Veggie Frittata

This was the first recipe I tried out in my new German kitchen, and I was shocked at how easy it was and how well it turned out. It's important to make sure that a) your skillet is oven-safe, and b) that it actually fits in the oven. By the time I realized that mine was too big, I was already committed. All that happened was that it took longer to cook and did so unevenly (the oven didn't close all the way), and now I have a large pan with the handle partly melted.

You can use whatever vegetables you have on hand--I usually use onion, mushroom, and zucchini. It's also nice to thinly slice a tomato on the top to mark individual slices, but I haven't tried that myself yet.

Classic Banana Bread

In Europe, banana bread is as foreign and mysterious as canned pumpkin, a real can of hot salsa, or cooking spray. When I found out that my Belgian friend Sabine had never had it, I made a loaf and gave it to her at her birthday party. Those brave enough to try it (calling it "banana cake," which isn't too far off from the truth) were impressed, and no one resisted a second or third slice.

The recipe I use can be found here. It's very forgiving (I lack measuring cups or spoons, and both times I've made it it's turned out great). I always throw a handful of chocolate chips in mine.

The Idea.

Apparently I require a variety of creative outlets, and one blog just isn't good enough for me. You can read about my adventures traveling around the world here; this blog is devoted solely to adventures in the kitchen.

In my free time, I love reading food blogs and recipes, and I have so many bookmarked that it's getting difficult to find them all. So the idea is this: I'll use this site to organize them, and when I actually get around to cooking one of them, I'll write about it. And take pictures, of course.

Sit back, relax, and let me do the work for you. I'll stalk the recipes, post the good ones, and let you know how they turn out. Or maybe you could let me know how they turn out, if you get around to cooking them before I do . . .