Posts filed under 'Cooking'
That is a huge stack of Valentines my children made this past week. We signed up for a swap with a number of families who also use Oak Meadow curriculum.
There were A LOT of families. Fuss and Bug decided they wanted each child to have their own. Then Fuss became completely disillusioned when he realised he didn’t have the time, resources or energy to send each one an entire fully-rendered scene. Basically he wanted to send each of the 94 children on the list a storyboard. A complex storyboard.
He decided if that was not to be, he would not participate at all and stomped off with his markers. So, Bug had to completely the monumental task. Which she did. Without complaint and while smiling the entire time. Phew. I thought I was going to end up making 94 Valentines.
Tonight is Valentine’s and my husband took me out to see Avatar. I was really keen to see it based on all the reviews. I usually like to wait for them to come to the movie network, since I pay for that and would like to make it worth paying for. Actually, I pay less per month for that than for one movie ticket.
I felt that Avatar needed to be viewed in 3D on a large screen. I believe I was correct, however I didn’t really like the movie. I was upset by the gratuitous violence and just generally completely overstimulated.
We came home after to relieve the sitter. She was planning to go out with her family and we had to see a later movie than we anticipated since the one we wanted to see was sold out. Sold out 9 weeks after coming to theaters. What an accomplishment.
So, once home, Colin took our sitter home and then went to pick up dinner. Taking a three-year-old along to pick up dinner seems to do wonders.
I thought that was about the cutest pizza I’ve ever seen!
I’m now off to bed to read a book and see if I can wind down from the wild ride that was Avatar.
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
February 14th, 2010
This was a super-simple really quick dinner. The kids liked it particularly since it had dipping sauce. I don’t think it matters what the sauce is particularly, it’s the dipping action my kids like.
It was also white fish, which is another of Fuss & Bug’s favourite dinners. The recipe calls for red snapper, but there wasn’t any available, so I substituted a white fish which I can’t remember at the moment. I just asked the fish seller to wrap up whatever would cook in a similar fashion. I’ve always found fish to be one that’s really easy to switch around. And white fish particularly since it is so mild and tends to take on the flavour of what’s cooking with it.
The yams were baked in the oven and were the intended recipient of the sauce, but every diner put the fish in the sauce as well. The spinach was simply steamed (I used baby spinach so I didn’t have to remove the stems or chop the leaves) and toasted sesame seeds were added. I shaped them into the logs you see. Fantastic way to get the kids to eat spinach. There was some flavour from rice vinegar and a couple of other ingredients in a dressing the spinach was tossed in before shaping and the kids also appreciated the crunch from the seeds.
The dessert was candied kumquats over rice pudding. I am horrible at making rice pudding which is a bit of a shame since it’s one of my favourite things to eat. However, I made the recipe in the book using sushi rice and it turned out totally perfectly. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve attempted rice pudding just to throw out a gloopy mess. This was delightful. We could have (should have?) left it alone.
However, it called for candied kumquats. They were a bit of a time consuming little fruit. First I had to find them, then I had to remove the seeds, which were surprisingly large for such a tiny fruit. Then I thinly sliced them.
I then put them in a pan with some sugar and water and let them simmer away for some time. Easy. But, they ended up being a taste that is either acquired and we failed to do so, or I just put too many atop each dessert. The resulting syrup was tasty, but one or two kumquats would have sufficed. I think the next time I might actually make the candied kumquats but strain them out using just the syrup for a titch of flavour for the pudding.
The dish was a gorgeous colour though!
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
February 11th, 2010
I’ve already done a few of the recipes from this book, and I’m totally a “start where you are” person. I may go back and discuss them, but I’m going to start now with next recipe on my journey through the Baking Handbook.
I love to bake. I also really like muffins. However, I don’t like dates and the recipe is for date bran muffins. I have a recipe of my grandmother’s for raisin bran muffins which she made me for breakfast every day during the summers (which I spent with her). Now, those are good. These have dates and so I didn’t try them. I know, you are always supposed to taste things before giving them to other people. I couldn’t.
I had to weigh the dates I had (I usually have dates on hand as I intend to make sticky toffee pudding, Colin’s favourite dessert, but never do). Pit them first actually, which is really easy to do when they are fresh. (I’ve attempted to do it on not-so-fresh ones and it’s really a chore.) Then I chopped them.
Not sure what it is I have against dates, really.
I then stirred them into the batter, which was a bit tricky since the batter was, ummm, dense and the dates were sticky. Hard to get them evenly distributed, really.
Then I put them in a well-buttered muffin tin and popped them into the oven.
Here’s the finished product while it cools.
The kids ate three apiece through the afternoon (one was enough for lunch!). I had two friends drop by separately and they each had one. Both raved, one saying it was the best date muffin she’s had and she loves dates muffins. So, even though I can’t speak for the muffins, there you go - they are tasty. I wont be making them again.
Enjoying the journey! Amanda
February 10th, 2010
I’m still in the chapter on making stock and what you can do with the stock you’ve made.
The next recipe was Matzo Ball Soup. Interesting. It’s actually very straight forward. However, I’m not shopping in the right parts of town as none of the first three grocery stores I went to carried Matzo meal. Finally, the one a block from my house had it. I don’t normally shop there, but I thought I’d give it a try as I got desperate. Good thing!
Then, no one had something called “schmaltz” which Martha Stewart thought I should easily get from my butcher. Nope. They thought that was just a silly request.
When I struck out there, rather than continuing to search all over town, I just made my own. It’s quite easy, so I’m surprised Ms Stewart didn’t have a side bar explaning how to do it. In fact, it seems like a superflousous purchase.
All you do is melt chicken fat. Really. I just cut some off the chicken before making the stock for the soup and voila!
All the solid bits went into the organics bin and the clear liquid went into the matzo balls. I only needed a small amount.
After letting the matzo ball mixture sit in the fridge for a short while (in addition to meal and schmaltz, it had whipped egg whites, egg yolks, and parsley), I took it out and got ready to shape them before putting adding to the broth.
However, meyhem insued and this is what I ended up with.
Not sure how these things happen. This is the largest bowl in a set I got at Williams Sonoma. Heartbreaking. After my husband broke my large Denby bowl (wedding gift) which we used every night for salad, I’m running short on large bowls around here….
I did manage to save the mixture and proceeded to make the soup. It was delicious. Fuss didn’t like it because on his first bite he swore he got a bit of ceramic in his mouth from the broken bowl. ~sigh~
I can totally see why some people consider this comfort food!
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
February 9th, 2010
Week 5 wasn’t such a hit save for the appetiser. It was artichokes on toast and it was so easy and the ingredients were all items I would likely have on hand, making it easy to whip up if unexpected company were to drop by. Which happens surprisingly often around here…
The colour on this photo wasn’t great, but here’s what the toasts looked like.
Fuss ate all of his as it was served. Bug scraped all the toppings off and ate the toast complaining the whole time.
The spaghetti with clams was passable, but too much work for what it turned out to be.
I bought the clams at Whole Foods. They were kind enough to pack them in ice for me.
Once they were cleaned (that’s cornmeal on top which Martha Stewart says will draw the grit out - not sure how)
I sauteed them with garlic and white wine until they opened.
And then tossed them with the pasta and a spot of the pasta water. I never remember to save the pasta water, so I just used half chicken broth and half water.
The only good thing about this was watching poor Colin try to eat it when Bug fed it to him. (Her favourite meal time activity - feeding her Dad.)
Poor guy.
The salad was average.
The dessert was lackluster despite being colourful and sparkly.
So, nothing to really recommend from this menu. I do think I prefer to eat seafood in a restaurant!
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
February 3rd, 2010
I cooked the first meal from this book this week. It was a fine meal for one that only took thirty minutes. I actually don’t think it even took that long. Super fast, super easy and the kids really liked it which made it a winner. So, the first recipe is a hit, in it’s way. The first thing I had to do was reconstitute the mushrooms for the porcini butter. This was probably the most time consuming part of the entire thing since it has to sit for a while.
Here they are, just waiting to plump up. Once they did, I minced them and mixed them into butter which I used to cook the eggs in and to butter the bread. I lightly butter the toast, but it would have been tastier had I generously buttered the toast!!!
These are all the ingredients ready to go. Everything here are basically pantry staples save for the prosciutto. That isn’t on my staple list, but I’m sure it is in many homes.
There it is all put together. I made an enormous green salad to go along with it. I just was really hungry so I forgot to wait to take a photo of the meal with the salad on the plate. As easy as this meal was, I think my favourite part was the salad. With the prosciutto, the eggs were too salty for me. That’s actually saying alot since I do like salt….
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
January 18th, 2010
They are way too yummy. I made them to take to a dinner party as a little hostess gift. I couldn’t help but sample a few. I was thrilled that they were leaving my house as I could have easily downed all two cups of them in one not-very-long sitting.
This is the first recipe (of course) in the book The New Best Recipe put out by Cooks Illustrated. which I received at Christmas (of course - one of the 10).
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
January 3rd, 2010
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