Catch up Feb 2010

This is just a catch up. With Mother going in to hospital things haven't been that normal. It also says something for my photography that I'm not sure what some of these dishes are?

9th February - this looks like tri-colour fusilli with veggies left over from the Chilean meal

11th February

This must be a lasagna with spinach.

Valentine's Day 14th February

Heart shaped fried eggs.

The dining room - just repainted!

Heart shaped veggie Toad in the Hole with cauliflower cheese, roat parsnips and potatoes and raost asparagus. Yum!

Thursday 18th February 2010 Celeriac and Macaroni Souffle with Emmentaler fondue

I have been struggling to blog over the last two weeks as my mother fell down the stairs and is in hospital. We've been over twice and every night has been taken up with conversations with siblings or my Dad. These things are more important.

Still I did cook last night. A Paul Gayler recipe but I didn't do it justice. I love both souffle and fondue and this recipe also includes old favourite Celeriac as well as Roquefort cheese and macaroni.

Thankfully Hubs did the shopping for me. Just as I was about to leave work, the boss decided he wanted to have a meeting. This put me half an hour back, and straight in to the rush hour. I couldn't get on to the motorway because of a problem on the northbound M1, and then it started snowing. I don't like driving in snow. I then remembered that I had broken my big souffle dish, and also that I had failed to buy some medium sized souffle dishes before Xmas. I rusherd to the local kitchen shop, but it was shut.

Back at home there was some paperwork to clear and recycle and then I had to return a couple of phone calls. One involved feuding neighbours - my favourite (not) and another a home adaptation issue. Dad seemed brighter when I spoke to him, but it is hard for him.

On to the souffle. Hubs prepped the celeriac whilst I was on the phone. I notice that I was having an allergic reaction to something, as I was itching and was coming up in blotches on my arms chest and tummy. Took anti-histamines washed down with a raspberyy Martini. Never a good idea!

Decided to make souffle in a cake tin. It is quite simple to make, though the egg white seems to fly everywhere when I whisk it with the turbo blender. I had to guess how long to cook it as the recipe was for individual souffles. Decided not to twice bake it.

It was a shame. The souffle rose fine, but it would just collapse on the plate. I must try this agaion with the proper kit. Couldn't really taste the celeriac either. Nice bottle of Crozes-Hermitage though,

Tonight was a lot chaotic. I had other things on my mind, the kitchen was a mess and the dishwasher was already full when I started to cook. Having the right souffle dishes would have helped too!

Sunday 7th February 2010 Creamed spinach and aubergine & butternut squash a la Milanesa

Saturday 6th February 2010 Pebre and corn bread, plantain empanadas

Tuesday 2 February 2010 Aubergine cannelloni

There was no cooking on Monday as hubs and I had a party meeting about housing.

On Tuesday night I was late home so I called ahead and asked what Hubs would like. He called back with an old favourite - one that he has even made occasionally.

Coming out of the Co-op the snow was beginning to settle so I took the long way round in to the village. The recipe involves tomato sauce and pesto, but to speed thing up I bought a tub of tomato and basil sauce from the chill cabinet and an organic pesto from the shelves.

The meal is simple. Heat up the oven to 180 celcius. Slice a large aubergine thinly and brush each side with olive oil. Put these on the oven until they show signs of softening - the miraculous transformation that aubergine undergoes to become edible. Take out of oven, smear one side of the aubergine with pesto sauce and then roll up around a piece of Mozzarella. Place each slice of aubergine in an oiled dish, seam side down. Pour over the hot tomato sauce, top with grated Cheddar or Parmezan (but don't over do the cheese) as well as some torn basil and pop back in the oven until it bubbles. Serve with bread.

I love this dish. It is fresh tasting (even with the bought sauce) and isn't too rich.

kitchen

I have cleaned today for several hours with a toothbrush and a metal scrub. There will be no cooking tonight for fear of dirtying my happy, shiney kitchen!

Saturday 30th January 2010 Curried Parsnip Pie

Saturday is traditionally a lie-in day in our household. But as there is a by-election in the neighbouring District, we went out leafleting with Comrade K.

On our return we decided to have a chip butty and a drink down the Oss. We used to go down the Oss a lot - perhaps too much. It was always a busy, friendly village pub.

But over the last few months it has declined. K is a big fan of real ale, but increasingly the real ale is not on. Traditional beer has been replaced by super-chilled pump. I drink red wine, but prefer a decent glass. Sometimes there's none on at all - and recently there has been a French Merlot that I'm not keen on. We have mentioned this a few times... Inevitably, our visits to the pub have declined.

However yesterday we were dismayed to see that they had now put a pool table in the centre of the main room of the pub, where most people like to sit. It dominates the room, and seemingly on Friday night some regulars were unable to take their favourite spots.

Usually if we go for a chip butty we might stay for two, three drinks, but yesterday I think we were so depressed about the way the pub was going that we had our chips (reduced portions)and went home after one. It's a shame. It could be a brilliant pub with a bit of enthusiasm.

Back at home, it was a sorting out day. We're still not straight from the holiday. We put some of the photos on a USB stick to drive one of the two digital frames which people have bought us.

For dinner, it was Parsnip pie - mainly because I boughta bag of parsnips reduced from the Co-op on Thursday. There is a recipe for Curried Parsnip Pie in Roz Denny's Ultimate Vegetarian Cookbook which I've made before.

But is it a pie? Frankly the recipe is more like a stew with a crust on top, though in this recipe the filling is part cooked under the pie. I prefer my pies to be a bit more solid and have a bottom crust as well as a top. So the recipe was modified. I also left out the curry as hubs isn't good with trigeminal flavours. Instead I subbed coriander, cumin and paprika which are spicy without being hot.

I was quite pleased how it turned out. I'm getting more confident with pastry. My photos are all in the same style though. Hubs received a book about photography at Xmans. Perhaps I had better have a look!!!!