Scrabble night – part 3

I had to throw most of the chicken out.

We tried to whittle down the mountain of poultry that had taken over the fridge, but it was a feat way beyond us. We needed my old gang of cadets – teenage boys that could drink 3 bags of milk and consume dinner plus 2 sandwiches for “dessert” in a single sitting.

I used to feel so guilty about having to throw out food. After all, not only had I carefully shopped (read: put a lot of time into it), I had lovingly spent umpteen hours prepping and chopping, sauteeing and broiling. But I have come to realize that in today’s crazybusy world, you can’t plan the way you used to. Some nights I am certain (and in the mood) I’ll cook and instead I have to do a restaurant review or a meeting runs late and I grab something where I am. And some nights things go awry, a phone call goes well into the night or a neighbour drops by and we open a bottle of wine and, well, dinner gets waylaid.

Since then, because of the heat,  we’ve had a lot of simple foods:

- corn on the cob

- salads topped with organic sprouts and sunflower seeds

- stir frys, pasta, sandwiches. – anything that doesn’t require the stove to be on too long

The most complex dishes I’ve made lately are veal scallopini and stuffed pork chops.

Most disappointing.

Especially since I’ve had the food book clubs and been dying to get to the stove to make some of the dishes we’ve been reading about.

It is 19 degrees tonight. Cold enough for 3/4 sleeves and a jacket.

Cold enough to cook.

The heat is on

It was over 30 degrees today (For you Americans, that’s like 100 and something), so I had convinced myself that I would just assemble some salads for dinner.  At most, I would get a piece of fish or slice up some chicken to go alongside them.

But as always, I got caught up in the excitement of creating something, with the possibility of it being memorable and/or fabulous, so by the time I had reached the grocery store, I was a quivering hot mess of enthusiasm.

Here’s what I decided on:

Crudites of carrots, yellow pepper, celery, including cucumber spears drizzled with lime juice and sprinkled with chili peppers

Arugula salad with warm, sauteed wild mushrooms

Fresh salmon with pasta and peas in a homemade, dill cream sauce

Broiled prosciutto-wrapped asparagus

It was pretty fantastic, though next time when I’m making the cream sauce, I’ll add a little stock to thin it out.  Somehow though, the pasta took to it extremely well.

As did my fella.

I considered making a dessert too, but I’m not quite there yet – still haven’t got back my fingerprints yet from the forever-to-be-known-as “chocolate incident.”

There’s mango gelato in the freezer if the boy gets a hankering…

Balls!

So excited to be cooking again last night, I went for a walk to think through what I’d make.

Do you ever get so wrapped up in something that you can’t see your way out?  I was all over the place – minestrone soup, empanadas, homemade pizza, baked trout, keftas over quinoa salad.  I had looked through some cookbooks before heading out to get some ideas, but went to some fine food stores for further inspiration.

Thinking about how much fresh food I had in the fridge, I bought only an apple to eat on my way back, some sesame flatbreads to snack on throughout the week, some muffins for my fella and some pasta for either pasta salad (in case I just made a bunch of cold salads – it was almost too hot to cook) or to keep on hand for a baked pasta dish I had yet to try.

Since I had many of the ingredients on hand, I came back and decided to make Southern Sausage Stew from Jamie’s America, Jamie Oliver’s latest cookbook.

I loved Jamie when he was first starting out – his take on everything was so invigorating and refreshing.  But these last few cookbooks, I’ve found little to get excited about.  This stew sounded good though.

But after looking at it closely, I decided that some of my own additions would make it even better.

Instead of green and red peppers, I used yellow and purple carrots and I added in a Chinese eggplant, portobello mushrooms, black beans, leftover kale from the night before, along with the ingredients and spices he listed.

I have to say it turned out beautifully.

My dessert however, did not.

Having worked on this dessert for two night and many stages, I can’t believe that the part I couldn’t do was melting the chocolate.

As you know, I do not bake, so anytime anything calls for chocolate, I get nervous.  I mean, I barely eat it to begin with, so handling it doesn’t inspire confidence in me like working with any savory ingredient.

I was making surprise Cake Balls for my fella.  I had made an orange cake and left it in the fridge overnight so that it would be cold enough to form into big meatball size balls.

Done.  B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.

I simmered water in a pan and melted really good chocolate over it.

Good.

Now all I had to do was dip the balls into the chocolate and cover them, put them on wax paper and set back into the fridge to chill.

My sexy beau would be having delicious orange delights in just about an hour or two.

Except that the chocolate was so thick it didn’t really cover the ball, but swathed thickly around it, pulling it down into the chocolate.

F————————————–!

Then, I did the worst thing I could possible do – I added a little water to try and thin it out.

I don’t know these things.  I’ve baked about 10 times out of my life, so I didn’t realize this would create an immovable fudge!

I tried adding a little milk to further thin it.  Now I had a Dairy Queen Blizzard on my hands.

So I tried to save it by putting it in the microwave to melt it at least enough that I could hand form it around the balls.

Three fingers on my right hand have chocolate second degree burns and my wonderful little Cake Balls that I wanted to surprise the love of my life with now look like Tim Bits with sad melted fudge chunks on the top.

I was feeling really cocky earlier in the evening, because I thought my version of the stew was more Southern and creative than Jamie’s.

He must have heard me.

I think it will be awhile before I get the confidence to bake again (and I didn’t have any to begin with, so now I’m starting at like negative 10 or something).

Great.  And I just ordered 10 new baking books from the library…

Food, glorious food

I finally made it back to the stove.

After a long day of walking the city, I came back to my hood to do a big grocery shop.

Ahh, so nice to have fresh goodies in the house!  But before putting them away, I cleaned out the fridge – ooh, there’s that lovely chicken chili I made last week and the pesto pasta that I thought we finished…

Then I put everything away.  With one small cupboard and one small fridge, this always means that I have to take out the majority of the items before I can make room for everything.

Really, it’s a whole thing.

Two hours after I had come through the door, everything is finally put away and the kitchen looks pristine.

It’s now time to make dinner.  I pull everything out and start the assembly.

My menu for tonight is:

- Roast skinless, boneless chicken breasts stuffed with wild leeks, fresh basil and lemons.

- Boiled new potatoes with olive oil and fresh dill

- Organic kale with garlic and horseradish

- Chopped salad of romaine, yellow peppers, endive and radish

I was tempted to do a big soup as well, but all that chopping and cooking took another hour or so, and I had started on a dessert (yes, I’m trying to learn to bake) that is going to take a couple of days, because you have to let things cool in the fridge in various stages. So despite how tired I was from the whole process, I was very close to just cooking all night.

However, I remembered that there is still tomorrow and Monday is a holiday here, so I may take a couple of hours in the afternoon to do something slow-cooked.

It is so good to be home, cooking again.  I am like an actor who just found out she got the part.

Tonight’s audition: finish the 3-part dessert (it’s a surprise), homemade soup (I think something minestrone-esque) and something from the new Jamie’s America cookbook.

Super size it

As you know, I don’t bake.

So when I make something dessert-ish, I use a mix.

Recently, I made cornbread for when company was over for dinner.  Normally, I do make this from scratch, but the other stuff I was making was pretty time intensive (top sirloin roast, cabbage soup, layered salad with homemade dressing, sides, etc.) so I went with a mix.

The package instructed me to use 2 cups of the mix, along with water, eggs, and the usual suspects.

After portioning out 2 cups worth, there only remained 1/3 of a cup.  So not only can I not make it again from this package but I’d have to get out the ol’ calculator and figure out how much water, egg (can you do an eighth of an egg?), et al I’d need.

Last night, I make an exceptional quinoa salad (I don’t know how it came out so well or why my meatloaf was “the best ever.” ).

Anyway, I had got it from an organic market so it came in a box with instructions.  Put one cup of quinoa with 2 cups of water…

It left me with less than 1/2 cup of quinoa left!

Argh.

Same with my wild rice.  I always have to buy another package before I can use the last bit up.

I know companies have to adhere to weights and sizes and such, but if you can’t just do one or two servings, don’t do it at all.  I’ve got 2 small shelves in which to keep my pantry stocked.  I don’t have room for 2 boxes or bags of one thing.

I’ve got to wait before making more cornbread or quinoa, which means I’m less likely to make it.

We buy our eggs 18 at a time, so there’s no chance of running out (with all this cooking I’m doing, you wouldn’t believe how quickly they go).

I’d buy these mixes any bigger if they made ‘em, but then, where would I keep them?

All I’m asking for is enough to make it once or twice, not something nasty in between.

Can you imagine if nail polish came only enough to do your nails one and a half times?

‘Nuff said.