The Weird Yogurt Grain Dish and Lettuce Wrap Encore

Hello from CAAAAALIIIFOOOORRRRNNNIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAA~!

yippeeeee aye yaaaayyyyyy~!~!!!!~!

This fish is finally back in its natural waters, in the land of the sunny, the beautiful and the green. It feels so good to be home!

School is starting in a little more than a week (!!!), but at the moment I've been spending more time with the Cousin in Palo Alto (AKA: middle of no where) and San Fran! It has already been a great two days. I'll be returning to home home, (AKA: BERKELEY!) today, and moving into my new apartment this coming weekend. Oh boy oh boy oh boy.

But while in Palo Alto, the Cousin and I decided to cook dinner for one of her friends that she introduced me to, who is just as fabulous as she talked him up to be. It was a night of good food, good wine and great company. Perrrrrrrfection! I wish it could be summer forever.

reunited! yay! 

ohey remember me?

For dinner, it was up to me to plan our menu for the night. I went with the lettuce wraps as our safe option, since we both made it before and knew it would taste good (and this time we added toasted peanuts, and it was AWESOME) and then this weird grain dish I discovered on a blog for our more adventurous palettes.

pre-baked

post-baked

In theory, each aspect of the recipe is pretty normal by itself. We have our usual stir fry, with some grains, and then a greek yogurt topping. It's when you put all of it together and throw it in the oven that things get a little more, iiiiinteresting.

Difficulty: 6 (lots of steps: cutting, cooking rice, stir frying everything, making yogurt sauce, then baking)
Willingness to make again: 3 (special occasions probably/not very college suitable)
Over-all: 6.5
Notes:
1) Long bake time
2) We opted out of parmesan cheese, but I wonder how it would have tasted if we kept that in
3) MORE yogurt sauce

http://casayellow.com/greens-grains-gratin-with-browned-yogurt-topping/

It is crazy to think that from here on out I'll be cooking in my own kitchen, while balancing student life again! Time seriously cannot go by any faster. It'll be interesting to see how this blog fits into my normal academic routine in these next coming weeks.

Until then, I'll be enjoying what I have of this California summer before school starts again. I'll be the girl outside with the wine glass in hand, skipping around without her shoes on and wearing a big goofy smile on her face because she is so happy to be back! Wippeeee!!!!