My weekends start on Thursdays.
If you're a friend of mine at Wes, you've probably heard me say that about 3x/week (more than that). But it's because last year, I had 9 AM class every day--and this year, I arranged my schedule to have no class earlier than 11, and no classes on Fridays. Yet, I still manage to be late to my 11 o'clock class.
With 2 tests, many response papers, a 10-page paper, figuring out who's living in the house next year, it was tough to squeeze in some cooking this week. But, being a college student, I've had to master the art of fast cooking without it tasting like Easy Mac.
When I want to do this, I turn to pasta. Sauce is so awesome--just fry some onions, add tomatoes, spices, lots of garlic, and you've got a hot pot o' sauce going (lol Carl Weathers).
Now, when I wake up during the week, I usually want something sweet. But for some reason, when I wake up on the weekend, I want, no, need something savory. Usually I'll just go to Usdan for an omelette, but this morning when I woke up I could not be bothered to make myself look presentable, nor walk across campus (when can I ever be bothered to do that?).
Anyway, when I woke up, I was feeling adventurous, so I decided to add a secret ingredient to the mix. I wanted a creamy marinara sauce, something I hadn't had in forever, so I thought (/looked up a recipe)...what do I always use when I want to make something creamy? Then the answer (or maybe the sunlight....) hit me like a ton of bricks--tofu.
My mother is particularly grossed out by tofu. It's probably because she doesn't have any Asian blood in her, cause my dad and I love tofu (or maybe our taste buds are just different). I particularly have taken a liking to it this past year, realizing how very versatile it is. I've used it in soups, stir-fries, desserts, even frosting! So it didn't faze me that this pasta sauce included tofu. All I wanted was something creamy to stir into my pasta.
And so I made it. And it was delicious. The perfect quick Sunday morning recipe. I got it from Edible Perspective, a food blog with gorgeous photography. I didn't make any changes so I'll just link to the recipe: Creamy Marinara Sauce.
Kinda looks like vodka ('vokka') sauce, which is my cousin Elyse's 'favorite' food.
As for the rest of the weekend...
Thursday kicked off Wesleyan Students for Justice in Palestine's Palestine Awareness Week! We had a panel of students giving first-hand accounts of their experiences in Palestine, accompanied by traditional Palestinian dishes. I volunteered to cook along with some other people were were my sous-chefs, and we made....
Mjaddara, a traditional Levantine dish with rice, lentils, olive oil, and caramelized onions...
Falafel...
Ellen enjoyed the filling quite a bit.
Song of the Day-- a fun dabke song! Check it out if you want to see what dabke looks like :)
Recovery Quote of the Day-- "When you seek beauty in all people and all things, you will not only find it, you will become it." I have a pair of earrings that have a similar quote in Arabic engraved on them.
Alright, time to clean my room. I'm glad I could procrastinate just a little bit longer. Enjoy this lazy Sunday!
Lazily,
Carina
If you're a friend of mine at Wes, you've probably heard me say that about 3x/week (more than that). But it's because last year, I had 9 AM class every day--and this year, I arranged my schedule to have no class earlier than 11, and no classes on Fridays. Yet, I still manage to be late to my 11 o'clock class.
With 2 tests, many response papers, a 10-page paper, figuring out who's living in the house next year, it was tough to squeeze in some cooking this week. But, being a college student, I've had to master the art of fast cooking without it tasting like Easy Mac.
When I want to do this, I turn to pasta. Sauce is so awesome--just fry some onions, add tomatoes, spices, lots of garlic, and you've got a hot pot o' sauce going (lol Carl Weathers).
Now, when I wake up during the week, I usually want something sweet. But for some reason, when I wake up on the weekend, I want, no, need something savory. Usually I'll just go to Usdan for an omelette, but this morning when I woke up I could not be bothered to make myself look presentable, nor walk across campus (when can I ever be bothered to do that?).
Anyway, when I woke up, I was feeling adventurous, so I decided to add a secret ingredient to the mix. I wanted a creamy marinara sauce, something I hadn't had in forever, so I thought (/looked up a recipe)...what do I always use when I want to make something creamy? Then the answer (or maybe the sunlight....) hit me like a ton of bricks--tofu.
My mother is particularly grossed out by tofu. It's probably because she doesn't have any Asian blood in her, cause my dad and I love tofu (or maybe our taste buds are just different). I particularly have taken a liking to it this past year, realizing how very versatile it is. I've used it in soups, stir-fries, desserts, even frosting! So it didn't faze me that this pasta sauce included tofu. All I wanted was something creamy to stir into my pasta.
And so I made it. And it was delicious. The perfect quick Sunday morning recipe. I got it from Edible Perspective, a food blog with gorgeous photography. I didn't make any changes so I'll just link to the recipe: Creamy Marinara Sauce.
"How did you get it so creamy????"
I highly recommend you make it, whether or not you're in a fix. Plus, this also goes great as an accompaniment for tortilla chips. I tried it. You can pretty much use it on anything. I love versatile recipes like this.
As for the rest of the weekend...
Thursday kicked off Wesleyan Students for Justice in Palestine's Palestine Awareness Week! We had a panel of students giving first-hand accounts of their experiences in Palestine, accompanied by traditional Palestinian dishes. I volunteered to cook along with some other people were were my sous-chefs, and we made....
Mjaddara, a traditional Levantine dish with rice, lentils, olive oil, and caramelized onions...
Falafel...
And baklava cups! (These particular ones were made with toasted pecans and walnuts and topped with a honey sugar drizzle).
And so did everyone at the talk! It was a lot of fun cooking, and the experiences told were so intense and interesting.
Then yesterday the Columbia Dabke Brigade paid us a visit and gave us a wonderful performance and tutorial! Dabke is traditional Palestinian dance literally meaning 'stamping of the feet.' It is commonly used as a form of resistance. The tutorial was great--even I could do some basic steps by the end! And that's saying a lot. Everyone was all dancing together :D
Apparently my aunt tried to teach my siblings and me when we were little. Looks like I don't remember...I'm trying to picture my dad doing dabke, as he claims he knows how to do it. I can't imagine it.
Song of the Day-- a fun dabke song! Check it out if you want to see what dabke looks like :)
Recovery Quote of the Day-- "When you seek beauty in all people and all things, you will not only find it, you will become it." I have a pair of earrings that have a similar quote in Arabic engraved on them.
Alright, time to clean my room. I'm glad I could procrastinate just a little bit longer. Enjoy this lazy Sunday!
Lazily,
Carina
omg that mjaddara is making me want koshary so badly!! also, make me baklava and hand deliver them to me, pleaseokaythanks?
ReplyDeleteheheh this summer!! also my arabic class made koshari a few weeks ago!
ReplyDelete