What's cooking? part 4

so i thought the 'drawer microwave' sounded like a bad idea when i was told about it... now that it's a reality, i hate it even more. and what awful placement! one will have to bend over to push the buttons!

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_3CnQQEvhUBQ/Syr_sJ43oaI/AAAAAAAAB6I/cu5-aB-nB18/s640/IMG_0178.JPG

not to mention it sticks out several inches from the counter. my parents are always ruining nice things with crazy accents!

but tehresa according to the sticker that microwave is not only LARGER sleeker but also more accessible. what went wrong??

marketing.

that looks like a terrible idea. We generally only use the microwave to reheat cups of tea and melt butter. I wonder how much the cups will slosh when you open and close that drawer?

In other news, 2 pans of 7 layer bars in the oven for tomorrow's pitch-in. One standard, one with layer 7b (candied ginger bits).

yeah we are kind of chat-fiting about it now. well, 'disagreeing' bc i think it's stupid and he swears it's not. but whatever, his kitchen!

but we can truly go "Freezer or fridge to M/W" in 2 secs flat

he says...

it's also adjacent to the busiest pathway in the house - everyone always walks through the kitchen to the dining/living rooms that way instead of using the other hall. "there was no other place to put it." uhhh what about... anywhere in the giant kitchen???

ok i'm stopping.

Time from fridge to nuker has never been on my kitchen necessity list, tbh.

yeahhhhhhh

i think he was trying to come up with ridiculous justifications?

But look at the rest of that gorgeous big kitchen you will be cooking in soon!!!

"this way if food ever falls on the floor I can get it into the microwave in 2 seconds flat and nuke all the bacteria"

hahaha

Aw if I argued with my dad about something like this he'd be the same but inside he'd be quietly going ";_; i stuffed up didnt I" so I never have the heart to.

oh no, my father is *always* right.

oh dear that does not look like a wise idea. really annoying to clean, too.

i made 2 lbs of creamed spinach the other day (following spanakopita a couple days previously), and i cannot stop eating it at pretty much every opportunity, including breakfast. two of my roommates independently asked if i was pregnant this morning. (not possibly, but maybe i have some sort of nutritional deficiency, or maybe i just really love spinach). anyway, that's what's cooking for lunch and dinner, probably....

early bday present from jordan: veganomicon!!!

Any recs on things to do with parsnips?

I love them roasted - wonderful mildly carrot flavor.

Hey Jaq I made your spice cake this weekend (with orange cream cheese frosting; marmalade between the layers) and it was FAB! Thanks!

Prep for seasonal potluck #1:

Tourtiere - blend of pork / veal / beef / venison. 11 secret herbs and spices (ok, 7 or 8). Cream cheese pastry crust.
Vanilla bean cheesecake - because you can't ruin cheesecake, but it always impresses - good for inept bakers like me. Presentation is key
Turkish apricots - dried apricots candied in simple syrup / pekmez blend with cardamon, cinnamon, stuffed with mascarpone (because it's pretty difficult to find clotted buffalo milk in my corner of the continent.)

those all sound fantastic. nice.

we've got meals planned up through friday (mostly my dad's cooking): spaghetti squash and left over red thai curry, lengua tacos, homemade pizza (brother's weekly staple), shrimp & various mezes/bread/soup, traditional christmas breakfast of doom, and a ham dinner, to which i'll probably contribute vegetable sides (greens and some kind of gratin maybe). this happens whenever my trips home coincide with my dad's vacation time, and then my brother suggests going out to dinner and we're like, "...but what about all the food in the house?"

Christmas eve is going to be zakuski - blini and sour cream, smoked fish, potatoes with crab salad, beet salad, pickles, maybe some other Russian-ish kinds of stuff, plus a bottle vodka from the local-ish distillery made with all the wheat that grows around me.

Friday I'm making a peking duck and chinese pancakes. I expect a lot of semi-racist A Christmas Story jokes from my family.

<3 lengua tacos soooo much

Duck is our trad xmas dinner.

i need to make lengua tacos i think! tongue is so cheap. do you have a good recipe maria?

nope, never tried myself - if my dad's is good tonight i'll ask for it though!

tacos were excellent! he cooked the meat according to this: http://www.examiner.com/x-4059-Chicago-Mexican-Food-Examiner~y2009m6d13-Tacos-de-lengua-beef-tongue-tacos (did take a full 3 hours, and was incredibly tender)

jaq's recipe was so good we made it again tonight:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/821832/cooking%20pics/P1010955.JPG

but this time we changed it a bit:
quinoa instead of rice (my first time eating quinoa! it's pretty nice)
didn't mix it all together - layered it on the plate instead
left the sugar and apple cider out of the dressing
added caramelised onions again

served w/roasted brussels sprouts (done w/garlic and mixed fresh herbs, squirted w/lime juice once they were cooked)

this is by far the best meal i've possibly EVER cooked (but lol i am a terrible cook so that's not saying much) - super simple but great combo of textures and flavours. i owe you big time, jaq! you're my hero!

This makes me so happy! :) I'm really glad you're having fun mixing it up too - I'll bet the quinoa was awesome with the other flavors, it's got such nuttiness going on.

it was! everything just magically went together so well. we feel so proud of ourselves! ytth, too, who has never actually cooked a meal in his life (apart from boiling pasta/quinoa and adding marinara/fake meatballs)

this is pretty easy and quick thing to make too - the only downside is that the buttercup is a BITCH to cut and peel, but it tastes so good :/

thanks for that recipe maria! will definitely try it

i made this for xmas eve dinner
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_3CnQQEvhUBQ/SzUkIqQWOFI/AAAAAAAAB88/97DLeFAq48c/s512/IMG_0218.JPG

did not end up making any fancy dessert this year, tho!

what's in there?

lovely photo, btw

yes, looks wonderful.

It was a cioppino. It was too sweet! Fishes, crab, mussels, clams, shrimp (mom insisted on more varietty eather than lots of fish but whatever!).

Now baking! Orange_scented bittersweet choc cake with a candied orange compote.

Roman beef stew and tagliatelle with fennel. First time I'd done the tagliatelle and it worked very well, the lightness contrasting nicely with the richness of the stufatino.

Could've wished for slightly more flavour in the fennel, but it was perfectly adequate.

stfuatino

I got a nice slow-cooker for Xmas from my friends!! What do I do with this???

Split pea soup!

This is a tasty beef stew, tho my husband likes me to add potatoes. Idahoans, you know?

Slow cooker/crock pot recipes

Not v much on that thead tho

country-style ribs slow-cooked with sauerkraut, A+

Yeah, recpies online have a disturbing tendency to include things like "one pack of french onion soup mix" and "one can of cream of mushroom soup". NO! No, no, no, NO!

aarrgh no kidding

it is the worst

opening cans of glop & pouring them together = not a meal

Oh, I want to do that chicken in a pot thing. My slow-cooker is officially bigger than my good stovetop stew pot, so it ought to make a nice big chicken and lots of veg.

Pulled pork...mmmm.

olive oil stir-fry made with six chopped-up plain pork sausages, plenty of garlic, plenty of ginger, several spring onions (chopped), vermicelli (broken), halved portobello mushrooms and two eggs. served with plum tomatoes which had been slow-roasted in olive oil and cinnamon.

by far the most successful of my recent cooking endeavours, this came out really nicely indeed! lovely flavours (can't go wrong with garlic and ginger eh?) and the only worry was that the vermicelli may have been a little al dente. in the end there was enough olive oil to cook the vermicelli to a lovely, still slightly-crunchy consistency. and the chopped sausages fared very nicely indeed. plus, roasted tomato and cinnamon is a good mix.

small portions for a family of 5 but we all need to eat less in this world ^_^

pulled pork is good stuff indeed.

tonight i made baked squash samosas (unfortunately, under-filled them due to previous problems over-filling DUMPLINGS!...perhaps next time will be perfect) and a pound of creamed spinach, which i then ate half of at dinner and plan to finish off at breakfast or lunch tomorrow. this creamed spinach addiction is perhaps a little out of control.