Learning my Limit

Thinking today would be a good day for marathon cooking, I headed to store and filled up on ingredients for four dishes: Chicken Scalopini, Ropa Vieja, Pozole, gnocci, crab cakes, and chocolate cookies. I loaded up on veggies, meat, and chocolate chips at Trader Joes's and Raley's, but decided toward the end of the shopping spree to fan the crab cakes because I couldn't find the crab.

I got home and immediately started on the Ropa Vieja.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons garlic, minced (bottled)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 large onion (for about 1 cup slices)
• 2 lbs skirt steaks (or flank)
• 1 red bell pepper (for about 1 cup pieces)
• 1 green bell pepper (for about 1 cup pieces)
• 14 1/2 ounces garlic balsamic & olive oil diced tomatoes
• 2 cups cooked rice (for serving)
• All of that (omit the rice) goes into the crockpot for 8 hours. Done!
• Next, I started on the Pozole (Natalia's favorite). I have a favorite recipe and went searching internet to locate another copy. Well, I ended up chosing a another one and it did not taste the same. It's not bad, but not my favorite. I won't post the recipe and will do my best to locate the one that taste terrific. Natalia is not concerned. Its her favorite "sopa."

Dropped the idea of cooking Chicken Scalopini tonight. I'm getting tired.

• While all of this is happening, potatoes are baking in the oven. I decided to defrost the chicken for the scalopini and begin making the cookie dough. The recipe for the cookies comes from someone else's blog. I made them last year and realized that if I didn't want to weigh 200 pounds, i should stop making them. Once in a while isn't bad right. Back to the gnocci. Crap! The Cuisanart doesn't work and I don't have a ricer. I have cooked potatoes on the counter and decided to sit and watch Oprah while eating chocolate chip cookies.
• The Ropa Vieja is still slow cooking. I'll update my post later to share the results.