Saturday, 4 April 2015
Things I knew before today: matzoh is a plain food…really simple…cracker-bread; they can be used to make a yummy soup.
Things I learned today: the plural of matzoh is matzot (sometimes); matzot can be transformed into a tasty albeit not-so-pretty chocolate-drizzled sweet; they can be used to make bitter-herb-and-horseradish-and-apple-cinnamon sandwiches.
Saturday, 7 March 2015
As I note in my hummus recipe, it’s worth it to sometimes remove the peel/skin on the garbanzo beans before mashing/pureeing, as both texture and flavor are slightly improved. The sometimes I do it are special occasions…like the birthday celebration we took hummus to this evening.
Thursday, 5 March 2015
We did a spur-of-the-moment lunch-out, and found this fancy wine display-and-storage (that wasn’t in a cellar) was part of the decor of the restaurant. Seems to me that the specialists advise storing wine bottles in the dark….
Thursday, 26 February 2015
Here’s what I think: I think I stood in the fruit section looking at an attractive display, and so I grabbed a crystal-clear clamshell of blueberries. It wasn’t the cost (no deal to be had); it wasn’t that I believed they’ed taste good (did I?)…it must have been that my thoughts got overwhelmed with a “summer” impulse, and that overwhelmed rational thought….
They don’t taste that good.
Thursday, 12 February 2015
I don’t know what dessert Abe Lincoln would have requested for his b-day, but our family b-day guy on this day requested apple pie. I tweaked my recipe once again, and the flavors were great, but still too much liquid (or not enough thickener—these modern well-watered fruits mean more pounds to be sold (yeah for the farmer and vendor), but also having “wet” fruit to cook with—and compensate for in recipes…if that makes sense).
Thursday, 15 January 2015
I can’t remember the last time I made meatballs. I also can’t remember why I got the idea to do so today.
I’ll have to do it again soon; they turned out yummy!
I put lots of flavorings in the meat, including at least four herbs, one of them fresh parsley, plus chopped fresh garlic and a bit of BBQ sauce and the good Japanese organic soy sauce that I’m loving these days. No ketchup—too sweet; I kept them savory.
Sunday, 11 January 2015
At the last minute we changed our dinner plans (which were rather loose to begin with), and made a right turn…to sushi—very happy to have one of my favorites, agedashi tofu (not shown).
Sunday, 4 January 2015
If there is such a thing as a couple New Year’s resolution, ours is to up our whimsy quotient. We’re not sure exactly what our whimsy is, but we figure we’ll recognize it when we see it.
Today’s whimsy was an adventure to Jo-Ann fabrics (more on that another day), followed by a stop at the super-duper-market. We bought lots of veggies, but I almost always find myself photographing the feeeeeesh.
Maybe this is a big-eye fish from the Big Eyes movie?
Friday, 2 January 2015
We enjoyed the greens and beans and rice crucial to the traditional New Year’s Day dish, in a bid for luck and prosperity. In a year, we’ll know if it worked.
We slightly modified it.
The rice was Basmati.
The beans were lady cream peas that I cooked from dry. These are small cowpeas, off white when dry. They take about 1.5 hrs to cook, no soaking. I cooked them for an hour, then separately prepared tasty bits, sautéed separately, and added them for the final half-hour of simmering. Tasty bits included onions and poblano. At the very end, I added some sautéed turkey Andouille sausage.
I quick sauteed some spinach and sliced some green onions and mint (left over…).
I served it in layers, a mound of rice, scoops of beans and potlikker, topped by a twist of spinach, with a dusting of green onion tops and mint.
Monday, 29 December 2014
My new dietary obsession fascination is a sauce/spread of roasted red peppers and walnuts, thickened with bread crumbs, and flavored with, well, that part varies. One of the consistent additions is “pomegranate molasses,” which is pomegranate juice with sugar and lemon juice, reduced by about half. I use pomegranate concentrate plus the others…. Another consistent addition is some hot pepper kick, like flakes. From there, and proportions, seem to reflect regional variations, what’s available, and cook’s choice. At least so it seems from this node on the giant online recipe highway.
The name I’ve seen for this wondrous paste is consistent: muhamarra. The pronunciation seems to vary, though, with the final consonant sound sometimes pronounced “d.”
* for a while….