Frozen Favorites

I generally enjoy a hot lunch over a sandwich any day which is usually why I bring dinner leftovers to the office everyday. Of course, sometimes there are no leftovers or I am not prepared and that is when having a supply of Lean Cuisine's, or other frozen meals, in the freezer is essential. I admit that I am a little cheap and only buy the meals that cost less than three dollars. Lucky for me, this usually includes the Asian varieties such as the vegetable eggrolls, potstickers (shown above) and the chicken chow mein.

Brown Bag

I am trying to upgrade my work lunch time accessories. I recently obtained a reusable lunch bag to bring my food in everyday instead of the un-eco plastic bags I have been using every day. I saw these bamboo eating utensils on the Earth Day episode of Oprah and I am intriqued.http://www.to-goware.com/store/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=63 Has anyone tried them?

Favorite Foods

I've been keeping a running list of my absolute favorite foods lately. Here are a few:
- chicken salad
- bbq ribs
- german potato salad
- coleslaw
- orzo pasta salad (giada de laurentis)
- deviled eggs

After reading this list, I have decided I am a diehard "picnic"er and fan of the cookout.

Eastern Inclinations

Johnnycakes is on quite a roll lately concocting various spice blends. Spice collection seems to be his new hobby. He lent his new talent for blending delicious flavors to our dinner this evening.
We had a few eggplants left over from a recent trip to the Baltimore City Farmers Market. We are sort of tired of eggplant Parmesan, despite having a good recipe for making the classic Italian fare, and decided to think of other recipes we could try.
We decided on Baba Ghanoush and an eastern rub on the chicken and began to compile the necessary ingredients. Johnnycakes grilled the eggplants (another new hobby) until they browned and softened. We then baked the eggplants until completely cooked and skinned the blackened vegetables. We mixed the eggplant with tahini paste, lemon, garlic and cumin until we liked the taste. A garnish of chopped flat leaf parsley and a sprinkle of olive oil completed the mixture.
We served the Baba Ghanoush with chicken, flavored with garlic, cardamom, ground coriander, cinnamon and cumin, and grilled onions and pepper, pita bread and basmati rice.
We generally have not been going to these great lengths on weeknights in the past several months but we seemed to have the motivation tonight. We didn't end up eating until after 8 p.m.! Well, at least we ate a great meal and have our lunches packed for tomorrow.

So Long Summer

I know that we haven't posted at all this summer, or this year for that matter, but I figured I'd post some photos of the cooking and feasting extravaganzas we've had this summer. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as we enjoyed eating all this great stuff!

I only wish I would have taken more photos this summer. Johnnycakes has become a barbecue master while I continue to eat and experiment with whatever comes to mind.

At First Sight

As promised, a Couple of Cooks blog has returned. We finally got our new camera after several long and undocumented months. I have to say that it feels a little strange to be posting and writing so I figured I'd just post some photos and let them speak for themselves until I get my bloglegs back:)

A Hiatus

A hiatus from the food blog has been forced upon us. Our camera is broken! We cannot photograph any of our culinary creations at the current time because our Nikon Cool Pix has gone black on us and a new camera just isn't in the budget this month.
Please know that we have gotten off our holiday induced bender of takeout and cookies and have returned to our semi-healthy home cooked meals. I'll try to post when I see something interesting or have a photo available to use but it's just not the same when you describe something without supplying a photo.
Hopefully we'll return re-energized and with a better camera for photographing food. Good eats!