flailing in my kitchen v3

How can I be sad when I have breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
How can I be sad when I have
pancakes, pork, and porridge?

I needed some Thai basil

The other day, I had a sudden craving for some spring rolls.

Spring Rolls

The spring roll I wrapped

Okay, those pictures are from July. But that's the last time I made spring rolls for myself! I was totally due for another spring roll meal. I know, it's getting colder out, and spring rolls are totally a summer thing. (Or a...spring...thing I guess)

Anyway, here's the spring roll spread I had a week ago.

Spring rolls in November

Honestly, the ones I made back in July were a lot better. A few things about these spring rolls that I recently made:

  • I used already-cooked shrimp in this because it was on sale, and I bought a whole 3 lb bag of it. The shrimp was pretty meh. Gotta cook it myself next time.
  • This would be so much better if I had pork belly.
  • I added carrots just because I had half a carrot that I didn't know what to do with. I feel like restaurants love putting carrots in their spring roll. I'm not really a fan.
  • I also added mint! I like mint, but I realized that the bag of mint I got from the Asian store was huge and I used a bunch of it in a stir fry (I'll get to that soon) and I still have way too much left over.
  • It was such a pain in the butt to get Thai basil. When I was at the Asian store, there was none sitting out, and I asked the lady who works at the store if they had any and she said "Oh! Yes!" and walked away, and I waited for over ten minutes, and she never came back ): Then I wanted to try to go to the other Asian store a few streets over, but it was Saturday, which means street parking costs money, so I park in the other grocery store lot (for the place right next to the Asian store), and when I get out of my car, the parking lot guard says to me "You're only shopping at Wholey's, right?" so I felt bad and I never stepped foot in that other Asian store. I checked Wholey's though. They don't even sell Italian basil.

I was feeling so exhausted just from being in two grocery stores that I decided to head home, BUT I STILL NEEDED MY BASIL. I drove to the Asian store again the next day just to get it. And with my large amounts of basil and mint, I made some stir fry.

Stir Fry

So good. So worth the many trips to the grocery store.

Stir Fry


More salmon

You guys know I love salmon. One of my friends has been raving about this Garlic Butter Baked Salmon so I figured it was time for me to try and make it myself.

Salmon, Broccoli, and Potatoes

The recipe calls for asparagus, but I just happened to have broccoli on me so I used that instead. And lemon-y broccoli? Not quite the same as lemon-y asparagus. I do think this would have been better if I used asparagus instead. I also don't know how I feel about one-pan baking meals. Something about the meat juices seeping into the veggies weirds me out. I also didn't even have enough room in my pan to make this all fit in a single pan, so I put the broccoli in its own pan.

I know, that would have made a lot more sense if I put the salmon in its own pan instead. Hey, at least I cooked it right side up this time!

Salmon, Broccoli and Potatoes on a plate

The salmon tasted good, but I definitely overcooked it. I think salmon cooks better at 350 instead of 400. But the potatoes? They were delicious. I know, it's just salt, pepper, and olive oil, but it was so good I bought and roasted more potatoes the next day.

I also cooked a lot of salmon (maybe that's why it didn't all fit in one pan), and I happened to have some leftover sushi rice, so I turned some of it into sushi.

Cooked Salmon Sushi

Clearly not as good (or as pretty) as raw salmon sushi, but still a pretty decent breakfast.


My life has been busy

Really my work has been busy. It's been so exhausting that I haven't been able to prepare good meals for myself. And when I have I've been too lazy to take photos of it. But it's getting better, so the food pics are coming back. These pics are all kind of terrible, but hey, in the end it's about how the food tastes.

Shrimp Fajitas

Yeah, I really wish I threw something green on that. But fajitas are delicious, and I think I really like cooking shrimp in the oven. It cooks evenly, and I rarely overcook shrimp when it's in the oven. It was delicious.

Loaded Potatoes

So one of my friends was telling me about this chipotle cream sauce thing that she had at a restaurant and that she was trying to recreate it. We actually ended up getting takeout from this restaurant and there was no such chipotle sauce, so I have no idea what she was talking about. But I decided, hey let's make these loaded sweet potatoes so I can actually have some chipotle lime crema. Also delicious.

Bibimbap

And finally, I made some bibimbap because I had 1/2 a pound of ground beef and I didn't know what to do with it. Pretty good. Don't know if I'd put it at the delicious level. I think it was missing a sauce-y element to it.


I love tacos

Tacos

Filed under: tacos i love food

Salmon and green beans

The other day I saw salmon on sale for $5.99/lb. I didn't have salmon on my list of things to cook for the week, but I can't say no to cheap salmon. So I walked to the grocery store and bought two pounds of salmon. That's it. Just salmon.

Salmon and green beans recipe

My aunt makes this great salmon dish with lemon pepper and mayonnaise. I always look forward to eating it when I visit her. It seems so simple to make, but for some reason, every time I try to make it, it doesn't turn out right.

Salmon

And this time? It's no different. It wasn't great. I don't know, I think I need to watch her make it. I have all the ingredients written down, but how much of everything do I need?!

Also, do you see that salmon? I cooked it UPSIDE DOWN. How the heck did I do that? I didn't even notice it until I took it out of the oven. It was overcooked, but the breadcrumbs weren't browned, and it wasn't seasoned enough, but I think I put too much butter, but I didn't even use salted butter so it was weird...

It's alright. Next time, cook it for like 10 minutes and then broil for a few more minutes. Use more lemon pepper. Use more mayo. Use more chicken granules.

Green beans

At least my green beans and eggplant turned out well.

Salmon and green beans

Yeah, 5/5 for the veggies. 2/5 for the salmon, but I'll try the salmon again another time.

Salmon, green beans, and rice


Hi! I like to cook, and I like to blog. This is where I dump out all my thoughts about food.

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