The Morning After

My day of cooking was a success! The SOUP turned out as usual - which is good and healthy! If you were going to go on one of those soup diets, I'm high in fiber, low on fat, packs your daily veggies and tastes good!
The PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES were also great. Though mine didn't puff up like Gourmet Magazine's did. I think this is because I hand mixed the batter instead of hauling out the fancy mixer. When I can I like to do things by hand. You'd be surprised but it actually provides an upper body workout and it makes the final product all the sweeter.
The ULTIMATE POTATO GRATIN was decadent. My brother said it smelled like my Babush's (grandmother's) house which at first I wasn't sure how to take. But he just meant to the bacon/cabbage/butter smell. It will clog your arteries but you'll die happy. My pop-pop lived to be 92 years old and my Babush is still going strong, so maybe we shouldn't diss butter after all.

The real winner of the day was the BREAD LASAGNA. O. M. G. This stuff was amazing and perhaps better than traditional lasagna. I think the key was that the bread acted like a distributor of the sauce and thus, there were no crunchy burnt noodles or pools of sauce in the middle. You have to like eggplant. And not mind a soft texture. It melted in your mouth. I wasn't satisfied with just parmesan so I added some shredded italian mix cheese to the top to make it more traditionally cheesy.
We're going to have my parents over for lunch next weekend and I plan to make this.

And I want to share a TRICK- if you don't want your tin foil to stick to your casserole, spray it with cooking spray before you wrap it up. Even if it touches the food it will come off effortlessly and not mess up your top.

I wasn't hungry all evening but topped the day off with a fresh fruit salad to round out my diet. I sprinkled it with some flax seed for an extra punch.

I woke up craving pancakes with ground flax seed which we've made before -
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-challenge/pancakes-recipe/index.html
But by the time I reached the kitchen I changed my mind and made scrambled eggs instead - with avocado and 6 grain toast.
The key to PERFECT SCRAMBLED EGGS, as I learned from PBS' America's Test Kitchen, is to keep them at medium heat and never stir - just fold the eggs over and over until they're cooked through.

We're off to DC this morning - which conveniently coincided with my brother's business trip - so we get a car ride instead of having to take the train. For the next 5 days we will be eating Subway, Au Bon Pain, and anything else under $5/meal. We will also enjoy our favorite burrito place - CHIPOTLE!!! - which brings back good SF memories.

~On to the suitcase~