a Sandwich to be Shared

At the beginning of the week I dedicated Music Monday to a sandwich (which I affectionately call "sammiches" in real life, but will refrain from doing here; Monday's post was very, erm, impassioned). I had a second go at it today, and followed my own advice to try Nutella.

Suffice to say, the combination was mouthwatering. Chocolate and peanutbutter are the perfect power couple. So here's the "recipe," a little bit more sensical than the last one.

You will need:
- two slices of bread
- one banana
- peanutbutter
- Nutella (optional)
-one tablespoon butter or margerine (optional)

 Spread peanutbutter on one slice of bread, and Nutella on the other. If desired, fruit jam can be substituted for Nutella. Raspberry or strawberry would probably be really good.

Chop banana into slices and layer onto the peanutbutter. I prefer thin slices, around a centimetre. Use as much or as little as the banana as you would like.

Place second slice of bread Nutella-side down over the bananas and peanutbutter.

Bring a frying pan to medium heat. Grill both sides of sandwich to desired level of browning. If you're using butter or margerine, melt this in the pan before grilling. This will help with even and crisp browning, but the sandwich will be fine with or without.

And that's it! Serve warm, and I'd suggest a glass of milk and orange slices. The peanutbutter and Nutella combo is quite sweet, so you'll want something tart to balance the flavours. While looking for photos, I also came across some variations that used strawberries in addition to bananas, and marshmallow cream in place of peanutbutter for a s'more taste. They all sound good, eh?

photos by, 24oranges, Greatist, cuttlefish, and me

Music Monday: Your Song and a Sammich

I'm feeling a little unorthodox today. Why? 'Cause I got one of those research papers finished up, a whole three days before it's due. This is absolutely unprecedented. It called for a celebration.

And so celebrate I did.

How, you might ask? With a sammich. But not just any sammich, it was a deliciously triumphant sammich. I'll give details on it below, but first we've got to get the Music Monday portion of this blog out of the way.

This week I've chosen "Your Song," specifically the arrangement from the film Moulin Rouge as sung by Ewan McGreggor. Moulin Rouge is a favourite of mine, and for good reason. The musical arrangements are prefect and suit the film beautifully, the casting was spot on, and the acting was just over-the-top enough to make the movie campy but not unbearable. If that makes any sense. Anyway, I love a lot of the songs from the film, and I have the album ("Nature Boy" by David Bowie gets a tonne of listening time, by the way).

So why "Your Song?" 'Cause it's the song that I wanted to sing to my sammich. Seriously. Here's the video.

So instead of Nicole Kidman, picture a sammich. In particular, a grilled peanutbutter and banana sammich. Yah. And just how does one make one of these? Read on!

1. Peanutbutter up one slice of bread.
2. Layer thinly sliced banana on peanutbutter.
3. Peanutbutter up second slice of bread. OR use fruit jam, Nutella, kaya, honey...
4. Heat a non-stick frying pan to medium heat.
5. Melt a small amount of butter or margarine in the pan.
6. Place sammich in pan.
7. Grill, flip, repeat.
8. EAT THAT SAMMICH-Y GOODNESS.

That is all. You can thank me later.

Rescuing the Milo

I love my Milo. A lot. I've blogged about it before, even. So it makes me sad when the Milo in our dining hall is pathetically sub-par. Luckily, I have come up with a very mathematically and chemically precise way of rectifying this hot drink deficiency:

• 3/4ish cup full of poorly proportioned Milo
• 1/4ish cup full of Vietnamese coffee (known here as kopi-o)
• 1/2ish tbsp of sugar
• 1/2ish tbsp of coffee whitener

Voila, the Milo has been salvaged and made delicious once more. Post-meal beverage time is saved! It's the little things in life, people.

photo by elena's pantry (whose gallery is making me drool)

a Picture Challenge: 11 and 12 - Love and Hate

So I missed a couple days this week, due to intense procrastination on my part. Sorry. So, here are days 11 and 12 together, since they fit so well. And, instead of just listing what I love and what I hate, I'm going to list a few of the things (mostly food, it's on my mind currently) that I hated last year, and love/like/tolerate this year.

Mushrooms. All my life I have hated the texture of mushrooms, the taste of mushrooms, the everything of mushrooms. Well, not the everything. I like mushrooms when they're in the ground doing that growing thing they do. I like the clusters they form. I like the spots on some of them. And I may or may not admit to liking eating them now sometimes, but only sometimes.

Asparagus. Another food hatred of mine. Mostly because it's a vegetable with strange paintbrush-like tips. Except that last night I made baked garlic butter asparagus with cajun grilled chicken. Whoamigawd. I'm in love. Microwave some butter, throw in a couple cloves of minced garlic and a little salt, toss with asparagus, throw in an oven on a baking sheet for a while. Heaaaaaven.

Red wine. I detested wine. I would tolerate white. Now I live in the Okanagan, aka the wine capital of Canada, and I'm slowly fast becoming a wine snob. I have a wine cooler in my dorm now for goodness sake!

Those cherries in canned fruit salad. They are now my second favourite favourite part, after the pears. The former fave, peaches, ranks last now. I'm not sure what happened there.

Florence + the Machine. Now, I never hated F+tM, but last year I absolutely refused to listen to her. Bad experience with the person who recommended her to me, y'know? I'm not sure I could survive without her these days.

photo by me.

Food Blog: Thai Soup

I adore food blogs.

Now that that's out of the way, I will share the Thai soup I just finished making. Well, figuratively share. What you'll actually be getting is the recipe and a photo. Although when I say "recipe" I don't mean the recipe I found on Figs with Bri, but the modified version of her recipe that I threw together. It's how we cook at my house.

So, without further ado: Thai Soup, au moi.

2 medium-sized leeks, chopped (approx 2 cups)
3 carrots, peeled & shredded (approx 4 cups)
1 large yam, peeled & cubed (approx 2 cups)
1 stalk of celery, chopped (approx 1/2 cup)
3 cups water
1 can of coconut milk, 400ml
salt & pepper to taste
minced or ground ginger to taste
lemon or lime juice to taste
minced or powdered garlic to taste
butter or margarine (approx 1tbsp)
sesame oil (approx 2tsp)

In a frying pan, combine leeks, carrots, butter/margarine, and sesame oil. Fry for about ten minutes.

In a large pot, combine water, yams, celery, salt & pepper, ginger, and garlic. I used a few dashed of both salt & pepper, probably a couple teaspoons of ground ginger, and two cloves of garlic.

When the water reaches a boil, add leeks, carrots, coconut milk, and lemon/lime juice. I used about two tablespoons of lemon juice in mine.

Once the yams are soft, you have the option of leaving the soup as is, or thickening the broth a little by pureeing a portion. Bri recommended using a stick blender, but I'm a university student and don't have one of those. I found that my Magic Bullet did the trick. Personally, I'd warn against pureeing the entire pot, as the chunks of yam and spirals of leek are absolutely delicious whenever you come across one.

Including prep, the whole process took me about 45 minutes: you need to be patient with the yams. Totally worth it, though. It could probably serve 5 or 6 as an appetizer, but I'll likely get 3 servings out of it myself. Again, male university student.

Here's the photo Bri supplied, and a link to her original recipe.


photo by Figs with Bri