Caramello Koala!!

A co-worker brought these in to work today, a gift from her Australian friend. Super cute AND delicious!

Grilled kielbasa with jalapeno corn relish

Dinner last night!

2 lowfat smoked kielbasa, pieces cut in half, cooked over high heat with a dab of oil and some cajun seasoning

1 15 oz. can of corn, cooked in the run off from the sausage, garlic salt, 1 1/2 seeded, diced jalapeno peppers, 2 small handfuls of chopped onion (about 1/2 a medium onion?), toward the end (as the corn is blistering) a splash of rice wine vinegar (you could probably sub in cider vinegar) and some cracked pepper.

I served mine with some crusty white bread and it was delicious! 2 sausages made plenty for leftovers the next day!

Dreaming? of my grill pan from my parents house (or a grill) to cook the sausauges.

Pizza

OK, I'm a sucker for pizza. I would eat pizza probably once a week if I could. It's just so damn good.

So, last night, I thought it would be kind of fun to make pizza. I had a half can of tomato sauce that wasn't really doing much in the fridge, so I figured I'd give it a try. I wanted to make homemade dough, but I get home so late, I didn't really have time to let the dough proof if we wanted to eat at a reasonable hour.

Lesson of the night: never ever buy Pillsbury pizza dough. Or, I guess, maybe try pre-cooking it midway, and then putting the toppings on?

The middle of the pizza (weighed down by the sauce, cheese and pepperoni) never really rose much, and in fact didn't quite finish cooking in the middle. (most of the "slices" went back into the over for a few more minutes of damage control cooking). It may have *something* to do with my ghetto-tastic cookie sheet, but... who knows. Someday, I'll have a pizza stone!

There probably would have been pictures... but honestly, I was too mortified by the results.

Dreaming? Of a pizza stone, and enough time to make dough from scratch.

Next up? Polish kielbasa were buy one get one. I'm pairing it with a corn-and-jalapeno relish and some crusty bread.

Food blogging?

A recent college grad moves to Washington DC to join the cycle of perpetual interning.

She loves to cook and bake. But in the move across the country, she brought only the "necessities" for her kitchen, and is trying to make do in the meantime.

Writing and food seem to go together, so here it is: official thoughts on cooking and eating, all while dreaming of that perfect kitchen someday. I practically have the William Sonoma website catalog memorized; wandering in the kitchen section at Target and Homegoods cheers me up.

In addition to not having my dream kitchen gear, I'm also cooking for two on an intern's stipend, so meals occasionally get crafty. Two failed attempts at making Korean kimbap (rice, seaweed, assorted vegetables and some meat) were tossed in the skillet and rechristened as pork fried rice. Yum!