Tag Archives: Food

Cooking, Free time, Instagram

Feeling homely! I’ve cooked.

Posted on by cre-cre

It’s been a productive Monday. I’ve cleaned, washed, did laundry and one thing that I am very proud of, I’ve cooked.

Yup, I’ve become a housewife.

I am happy about the cooking part because I’ve cooked good food for me and John but also for Pluto and Marlanu’.Yes, I’ve cooked for our pets as well.

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I’ve made homemade bread (using the bread maker my parents left behind), potatoes with chicken breast, cream and cheese. And for the pets I’ve made grits with chicken liver, hearts and gizzard (a recipe from a friend who used to be a dog trainer). Of course, I’ve only given the meat to the cat, since I don’t think the grits would do him any good.

I am not bragging or anything, but I am happy it all turned out good. After all, it is a rare sight to see Johnny eat the food I make. I am also happy that my parents are not into technology and that they left behind a lot of useful things, like the bread maker.

It’s a small loaf of bread but it turned out really good. And we know exactly what went into making it so we don’t have to worry about the quality.

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For the main course, I’ve looked up recipes on LaLena.ro I like this website a lot, the fact that it is in Romanian is an advantage. It has a lot of easy to make recipes. This is the recipe for today and here is the result:

cooked chicken
I’ve cooked chicken.

I’ve made enough for 2 people. I didn’t made more since I know from experience that we throw away all the leftovers. We’ve been throwing a lot of food and that’s pretty wasteful behavior on our part.

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Over all, it was a good start to the week

Free time

Cooking 101: Pork Stew with Green Peas

Posted on by cre-cre

After eating pizza, fries with any type of meat and just junk food in general we’ve decided it’s time for us to cook. Better said, it’s time for me to cook. After all, I’m the one that has nothing to do all day long.

So, I cooked my first real meal (after that soup I’ve made a few months ago). I’ve made pork stew with green peas. I’ve found a recipe that was actually with beef. Now, I didn’t have beef and since we decided not to waste food anymore I used pork instead.

It was so easy to make and fun as well. For start to end, it took almost an hour (with photo breaks as well). I only need pork meat, 1 onion, 1 carrot, tomato sauce, frozen green peas, salt and pepper.

I didn’t measure the quantity of each ingredient, but mostly added as much as I thought the two of us would eat. My goal was to make something we could eat for a day. If we don’t finish the food in one day, we’re not gonna eat it the second day.

It went like this:

1. I heated the oil and added the meat. The meat was cut in small pieces. I fried the meat till it turned a little brown.

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2. I added the onion and the carrot (which were also sliced in small pieces).

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3. After 5 minutes, I added 2 spoons of tomato sauce (the original recipe said 1 spoon, but I like the home made tomato sauce my mom makes).

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4. After another 5 minutes, I added the frozen peas. I’ve waited for them to defrost. Then I added enough water to cover the content.

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5. The original recipe said to wait about an hour for it to be done. I’ve only had to wait 30 minutes since the quantity was smaller then what it said on the website. I’ve stirred the content every 5-10 minutes, added salt and pepper almost at the end.

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 It turned out good. And if I had to rate my attempt, I would give myself a 8 out of 10. I dropped a little bit too much pepper and I could feel it when eating.

I’m actually proud I made something decent that is not fried. I’m also doing some research for easy recipes that Johnny would eat as well. And that’s not an easy task considering he doesn’t eat a lot of things.

Free time, Photography

Is this how British summers are?

Posted on by cre-cre

July is almost over and it’s still cold and it rains almost every day, and night I might add.

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It’s quite depressing.

Now, I do not like the summers when it’s so hot that you sweat even when doing nothing. It’s just that I was expecting more sunshine and less rain.

Not only that, but it feels like time has stopped, especially if I am at work. You know, at first I was reluctant and thought that it might not be the best idea to quit. Well, I’ve changed my mind. I am glad I’ve quit and hopefully I will not have any permanent damage from this job.

Oh well, 25 days to go. Yes, I am counting each day till freedom!

Till then, I hope I will finish my second needlepoint project, that I will lose some of my belly and that I will learn a new recipe.

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Regarding the belly fat, Johnny bought this new thing (I’m guessing it’s called a juicer in English) we now keep in the kitchen. It can make fresh juice out of almost anything. We now have a fridge full with apples and carrots, and I’m planing on buying other fruits as well. One glass a day of fresh juice really helps me not to binge on ice cream or other stuff.

Not only that, but I’ve cooked a new type of pasta this week. It was pasta with tuna! I know Johnny doesn’t like fish so I made it mostly for myself and it was so good and easy to make!

We’ve kinda splurged this month now that I think about it. We bought new phones, the juicer but we’ve paid all the bills as well and we haven’t starved yet. So, that’s a good thing.

While Johnny got an iPhone 5, I got an AllView X2 Soul. He likes the Apple operating system, while I like the Android since I find it easier to use (I still have traumas after trying to put music on my iPod using iTunes). Not only that, but I bought my phone for pictures, storage and the fact it moves so smooth and nice. Johnny bought the iPhone for reasons I am not yet aware.

Well, I cannot complain about Johnny’s iPhone, after all I got the headphones. And, the headphones are not cheap if you try to buy them from the store.

Cooking, Free time, Hobbies

It’s official!

Posted on by cre-cre

I don’t even know how to start this post. I think I should be happy, but I can’t seem to feel a little uneasy as well. It might be from the weather (we’re in June and it’s still cold and gloomy) or from being tired (I work on the night shift now).

I just quit my job. I have one more month at work (last day of work is on the 22nd of July). I did promise myself that I will not work longer than 2 years in customer service, and I should be proud for keeping that promise. But, I will miss my co-workers/friends and it feels I will not find people like them anywhere else.

It’s funny because at the first job I had, I loved what I was doing by not the people that I’ve worked with. And now, I love the people I work with but I hate the job. I should make a new promise to myself to not lose touch with my friends.

And there’s more..

We (me and Johnny) are officially living alone. Yup, just the two of us and Marlanu’.

I can honestly say I haven’t had a cooked meal in almost 2 weeks. That’s my only complaint. Not only that I don’t have time (because of the night shift), but I never actually cooked meal that involved more than potatoes and meat. So, at the moment I’m on Google looking for easy and quick recipes, like chicken soup. I also have to find recipes that Johnny would eat. After all, he’s a fussy eater while I could eat anything.

There is also the cleaning (which I love!), shopping (groceries and things needed in the house), making sure all is paid on time and the usual stuff that involves keeping up an household.

I think this is a milestone for me.

~~~~ An update on the chicken soup ~~~~

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It’s done! It tastes good. I have FOOD!!!

News

An awesome 4 day weekend

Posted on by cre-cre

I HAD AN AWESOME WEEKEND!

It was an awesome weekend because nothing special happened. We just hanged around like we used. I really missed the good ol’ lazy days, when time was on our side and we were able to get bored.

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Of course the first thing I wanted to do was to go out to the park and just enjoy Spring.

It was really nice these last few days. It was sunny and warm, it only rained one afternoon but it wasn’t enough to bother us.

What I do like about this weather is that with the sun coming out cats are also more likely to come out and bask in the light. And that means, more cat photos for me.

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Now I have a good camera to take good photos even from a distance. So I will probably have a blog with a lot of stray cats in the near future.

Another thing that I enjoyed this weekend was the good food. We went out to eat at our normal dinning spot. We’re just creatures of habit and its hard to break a habit when it involves good food and good company.

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Of course I am the one with the soup and Johnny is the one with the meat and mashed potatoes. But I really do like cow belly soup (ciorba de burta) and there are very few places that make it really good.

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 Then there was also the coffee. Honey coffee, the best way to get sick! It looked so nice but it was really sweet. Basically, espresso with lots of honey. But after you drink one glass of that, you don’t need another cup of coffee nor a desert.

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We even went to the movies (saw “A good day to die hard”) , had a little bit of shopping (got new shoes),  went out with friends (from work, and I got tipsy), went out with family, watched cartoons and anime, played Sims, got new books  and the most important thing, we spent good quality time together.

I think that was the best part of them all, having a good time with Johnny. No quarrels or anything of the sort. Just the two of us enjoying our free time together.

Nothing can beat that.

News

Another day at the country side

Posted on by cre-cre

It seems it has become a habit for my family to go out to the country side on every weekend. I don’t mind this habit, since we get some fresh air and we get to eat a lot of good food.

My mother outdid herself this time. Besides the normal barbecue, she made home made bred, cheese pie and two main courses. The pies and the bred were done in a mud oven (it’s a really old type of oven used at the country side). I know it sounds weird, but the food done in it has a different taste from food done on normal gas or electric ovens. And I mean that in a good way.

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Oh, by the way, this isn’t my mother. 

Even if on Saturday it rained, on Sunday we had great weather. And as usual I managed to take some pictures. But I focused more on learning on how to use my camera and taking pictures of the cute animals. Of course the main subject was Bijou, the dog, but we had a really pleasant visit from a white cat. She was very friendly considering she was a stray cat. I even took a picture of the bee hives.

And we even played badminton, Frisbee and volleyball.

I guess you can say we had a really good time.

News

I’m hungry

Posted on by cre-cre

I seriously am hungry. I’m at Johnny’s place and they usually eat around 7 PM. That’s one hour away -__-.

I usually have dinner right after I get home, that’s around 5:30 PM. So I’m not used with eating so late, and it’s even worse since Johnny’s mother is making one of my favorite meals and the smell is killing me. Let’s not talk about Johnny’s father who is currently watching a cooking show.

I know one hour isn’t that much but it’s been a really long day at work and, unfortunately, something tells me it’s gonna be a really long weekend since Johnny will be busy repairing someones computer and I have to finish some translations. It sucks when you have to take work home.

Hmm I hope we go out for an ice cream this evening, I would really go for a lemon and vanilla ice cream right now.