Marga's Foodblog

Tonight for dinner I made Estofado de Vaca Aragonés from the Delicioso cookbook. It was pretty good though not special enough to merit making again. Of course, I let it dry out in the pot which may have decreased the flavor. It was very tempting, though.

According to the book, this traditional Aragonese stew has been made in the same way since the middle ages. It's interesting because it has a definite Middle Eastern taste to it - though it's not sweet, as a similar Middle Eastern dish might be.

Monday night I made braised lamb shanks with caramelized onions from this Epicurious recipe. They smelled wonderfully but tasted flat. I think next time I make lamb shanks I may use the Zuni Cafe recipe for braised oxtails.

Oftentimes when I ask Mike what he wants for dinner, he tells me "chicken cordon blue". He had no idea what chicken cordon blue was, but it sounded French and complicated and he figured I wouldn't make it. That way, he didn't have to actually think of something I could make for dinner.

Every time he mentions it, I call his bluff, tell him what chicken cordon blue is (for some reason he keeps forgetting) and he backs off from it. Finally, I figured that the best way to finish this routine was to actually make some chicken cordon blue so he could decide for himself whether he wanted it or not. I'm not sure now if that was such a great idea.

Chicken cordon blue (fried chicken breasts stuffed with ham & cheese) has never sounded that appealing to me, it made me think of '50s housewives, but I was determined to find a good recipe. I couldn't find any on epicurious.com, but allrecipes.com had plenty of well-rated cordon blue recipes. I decided on this one not only because it got great reviews, but because it was very simple and it came with a sauce. It was a great choice. The chicken was quite good and the sauce worthy of its many calories.

I diverged from the orginal recipe in a few ways. I used prosciuto instead of ham, Provolone cheese instead of Swiss, and beef bouillon instead of chicken bouillon. I also cooked it for only 20 minutes instead of the required 30 as several reviewers had complained that the chicken was too dry. The chicken was fully cooked after 20 minutes so it didn't require any extra time.

This dish is actually good enough that you could serve to company.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
4 slices Provolone cheese
4 slices Prosciuto
3 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. paprika
6 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup white wine
1 tsp. chicken or beef bouillon granules
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp. cornstarch

Directions

Pound the chicken breasts until they are very thin. Place a slice of cheese and prosciuto on each breast. Fold over and fasten with toothpicks. Mix the flour with the paprika. Dust the breasts with the flour mixture.

In a large skillet melt the butter. Brown the chicken breasts on all sides. Add the wine and bouillon. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until done.

Remove the chicken from the pot and keep warm. Mix the whipping cream with the cornstarch. Whisk gradually into the simmering sauce. Simmer uncovered until the sauce thickens. Serve the chicken with the sauce.

Kathy wanted beef for dinner last night so I decided on this easy marinade recipe. It calls for Italian dressing, Worcestershire sauce & BBQ sauce. I used tri-tip, which is a good grilling cut.

They were OK - Kathy didn't think they were flavorful enough. I think I should have salted the meat before marinating it.

Tonight we are going to Casa Madrid for dinner - I can't wait.

Kathy wanted meat with sauce and I decided on making a beef stroganoff. I've made one years ago without great success, then had a great one prepared by a Russian friend in Italy so that I can now really tell the difference between good and not-so-good. The recipe I found at allrecipes.com was supposed to be great, it got 5-star ratings, but at least in my hands it ended up being not-so-good. It was edible, all right, but it didn't have much flavor. Maybe I should have used more mustard.

I love milanesas. They're not very healthy and they're a bit of a pain to make (or rather, to clean up after), but they are soooo good.

Last night I made them with some very thin meat from Safeway I didn't even need to beat up. The empanadas were extremely tender and wonderful in thin slices of sourdough bread with lemon juice, tomato slices and baby spinach. Yummmm.

Recipe

Ropa Vieja (literally, "old clothing") is an old Cuban recipe used to spruce up leftover meat. I got the recipe from the Frugal Gourmet on our Immigrant Ancestors many years ago, and it has always been one of our favorites. The recipe itself is pretty simple, requiring the cooked meat to simmer with chopped onions, garlic and green peppers in tomato sauce and wine. The only spices are salt and bay leaves. But it's unbelievably delicious.

The dish is quite laborious, however, as you first have cook the meat (unless you have tons of leftover roast around) and then shred it. It shreds easily but it takes quite a long time to do it. Stopping yourself from eating the meat while you shred it is also quite a task.

I usually serve Ropa Vieja with rice, but this time I served it with quinoa. I wanted to try it. We weren't too impressed. The package instructions - cook it in a rice cooker with twice as much water as quinoa - made for a soupy mess. next time I wouldn't use more than 1 1/2 xs water. I don't think we liked the slightly nutty/bitter taste of the quinoa, though it did grow on us. Perhaps it will be better with other types of sauces. I still have some more, so I'll probably make it again.

I had heard about Trader Joe's pizza dough for a while, so during my last TJ trip I bought some of the herbs & garlic one. It's in the refrigerated section, right next to the pizza sauce (which I also bought). Add some pre-shredded quatro formaggio, some pepperoni and fresh pineapple and alas, we have pizza.

Of course, I first needed a pizza stone and I secured one at the new "dd's discount" store that opened in San Leandro. This is basically a Ross store selling cheaper crap - kind of like a McFrugals that concentrates on clothing. But they do have the same type of stuff that Ross has, including some cooking items. I got a Farberware pizza stone for $10. It was not a bargain.

I had washed and let dry the stone as the instructions said, but I found myself without the necessary cornmeal to put under the pizza. The instructions said to not use flour as it would burn, so I decided to just put the pizza on the stone. It wasn't a good idea. As the pizza cooked it merged with the stone and it became impossible to separate it. We basically had to cut through the crust to eat it. It was really good, though now I think I have a useless stone. I don't know if it'll be possible to clean it though I'll try. If I get it clean, I'll certainly will make pizza again and next time I won't skip the cornmeal :)

Finally, after months and months of planning to cook Bhutanese food, I started doing it. I decided that I will cook 3 dishes in 3 separate nights. Last night we had Kewa Phagsha, spicy pork with potatoes. It wasn't half-bad.

The recipe for it is at http://www.marga.org/food/int/bhutan/pork.html

Alas, I forgot to take a picture of the dish, though it wasn't particularly attractive. Basically large slices of potatoes with small pieces of pork.

Tonight I'm planning on making Ema Datshi, chili & cheese, Bhutan's "national" dish. Nothing that I've read about it makes it sound appetizing, so if it doesn't work out I'll just boil some frozen ravioli.

When I saw the white stilton with apricots at Trader Joe's I knew I had to try it. I hadn't had white stilton before, but I love blue stilton. White stilton apparently is a younger version of blue stilton to which the blue mold has not been added. I have to say that without the mold it's just not as satisfying. In this version it's mixed with dried apricot pieces. It's good but nothing extraordinary.

The cheese has a light flavor , slightly more pungent and salty than creme cheese. Its natural flavor is almost completely overwhelmed by the sweet apricot, however. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it tastes good, though I'd have preferred a stronger cheese taste. It has a crumbly texture which makes it hard to spread or it by itself, perhaps its best used would be crumbled over a salad or another dish.

I did like the idea of combining apricots with cheese, though, and I think a bagel with cream cheese and apricot preserves would probably be delicious.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I prepared a (reduced) Thanksgiving feast for our small, nuclear family. Still - cooking for 3 or 7 is not that different and I did spend a fare amount of time in the kitchen. Enough to realize that there is no way I'll be able to cook Xmas dinner next month - when I'll be almost 8 months pregnant.

Dinner came out well, but nowhere near perfect. The problem was clearly that I didn't pay enough attention - pregnancy brain, tiredness, I have tons of excuses. I did leave tons of dirty dishes for Mike to cook, however.

We started with a sweet pumpkin soup, made from a Trader Joe's base I'd previously bought. All you have to do is add some sour cream and milk, and it's very good but very sweet. A jar should be enough for four as an appetizer, as you can't quite handle too much more of the sweetness. Mika liked it and ate quite a bit as well.

Then it was time for the main meal.

I made Roast Turkey with Prosciuto-Hazelnut Crust from this recipe at epicurious.com.

I started by brining the chicken (a free range, organic 12-pounder) in a solution of kosher salt, sugar, dried thyme and bay leaf the night before. Then I rinsed it (note, some of the thyme leaves stuck to the turkey skin), dried it and let it sit in the fridge for several hours before cooking. I cooked it according to instructions, but I wasn't able to baste it as part of my baster was inexplicably missing. I also overcooked it somewhat. I'd checked the turkey and it had been at 172 - when I checked 10 minutes later it had shot up to 180. Clearly I should have taken it out at 172. Live and learn.

The turkey was very good, I found the drumstick a tad too salty but Mike found the breast was fine. It was, however, too dry - though Mike said he expects that from turkey. Still, I wanted something jucier. Mike loved the skin where the butter had been.

The accompanying gravy was rich and thick and tasted quite good, but the bits of meat made its consistency too disconcerting. The recipe didn't call for it, but it should definitely had been filtered. In any case, I wasn't able to palate it - knowing that it was made from the internal organs gave me a case of the willies. This even though I have no problem eating foie gras or pates made out of innards. Oh well, let's blame it on pregnancy.

I made mashed potatoes from the Zuni's cookbook recipe. I'd previously made it and loved it. Once again, they were a big hit - I'll make them again for Xmas and quadruple the recipe. This time they were too lumpy, I didn't spend enough time mashing the potatoes and I should have probably whipped them for longer (I was afraid they'd get gummy - they didn't), but the taste was all there. Oh, and this time I didn't use buttermilk, just whipping cream.

Finally, I made Stove Top stuffing, which I like so much that I never see a need to make any other kind. We made the sourdough kind with salted butter, and I found it a tad too salty - Mike didn't. I had meant to mix it up with grilled chopped apple-chicken sausage, but I totally forgot. Pregnancy brain again.

I had also meant to make green beans, but we left them in the plastic bag overnight and they had mold by then.

For dessert I made an apple pie. I used frozen Marie Callender pie crusts and they were very good, they tasted great in combination with the apple stuffing. They were too thin, however, so it wasn't possible to cut off a piece of pie without having the whole thing disintegrate, and my proportion of apple-stuffing to crust was too high (I used four granny smiths, next time I'll use 3), but the pie was delicious, in particular with some Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream. I had meant to make a sugar-free pie, using Splenda instead of sugar, but once I started adding the spleanda to the apples I realized the taste just wasn't there so I used probably twice as much sugar as splenda. My other ingredients were cinamon and a dash of nutmeg and ground cloves.

Today our leftovers are mostly turkey and pie. The pie held up great and Mike said his turkey sandwich (bread, turkey and mayo) was awesome.

Christmas Eve dinner was a huge success. All the food I made was simple and easy to make yet delicious. Everyone - not the least me - was impressed.

I put up the menu and recipes already (they are at http://www.marga.org/food/party/xmas04/), as I failed to do it in previous years.

Christmas day we had a frozen lasagna for lunch and then went to the Oriental Tea House for Chinese, we were the only non-Chinese people there!

Yesterday we ate leftovers, and that's what I assume we'll have for lunch as well. For dinner we're taking K. to Chevy's, as that's where she wants to go.

A couple of nights ago I made the Lomo de Cerdo al horno con Cebolla & Puerros recipe from the Delicioso Spanish cookbook. It's a very simple recipe from Catalunia, but unfortunatelly it wasn't very good. The pork loin, roasted surrounded by onions and with some white wine, wasn't very flavorful and it was a bit dry. The mixed onions were delicious, however. Still, I won't be making it again.

Last night we went to our friend Regina's house for dinner. I had gotten her the Les Halles cookbook for Christmas and she made a meal out of that. The main dish was "pot au feu". She had been hesitant to make it as the concept (boiling meats and vegetables together) just didn't sound good. But many people have told her how much they loved the dish so we figured there might be something to it and it was worth trying.

It turned out to be pretty much what we expected, boiled meat and vegetables in a thin broth. It reminded me very much of Argentine puchero, which is pretty much the same thing with a less sophisticated name. The meat was very tender (of course) but pretty insipid, though it was helped by mustard. Iggy liked it, though, probably because he grew up eating boiled foods so there was a comfort element on that. And indeed, my mom used to make puchero for my sister quite often, so she, at least, likes it. The rest of us will skip it next time.

Lola also made some pot-au-creme for dessert and I thought these were really yummy, though they didn't seem to like them as much. To each their own.

Last night I made the above mentioned dish, also from the All About Braising cookbook I got from the library (and which I'm going to buy). It was good, though not worth all the trouble. A roasted leg of lamb is just as good (particularly the Armenian Leg of Lamb recipe) and much easier and cheaper to make - so I wouldn't make it again. But we did enjoy it a lot.

It consisted of a boneless leg of lamb stuffed with a mixture of Italian parsley, mint, rosemary (you could also put thyme and/or sage), garlic and shallot, then rolled and tied up and browned on olive oil. The leg was then braised on a mixture of red wine and broth (I used beef, the book called for veal, lamb or chicken broth) with chopped onion and carrots, parsley stems and a little bit of chopped rosemary and mint. The lamb was then sliced and served with a reduction of the braising liquid.

I served it with steamed green beans and mashed potatoes from a box. Fresh mashed potatoes would have been better, but I hate peeling potatoes. When I mentioned that to Mike he told me he actually likes doing it - so in the future I'll make home-made mashed potatoes.

In any case, it was a great dinner. Mika wasn't too enthused by the lamb, but she did eat a lot of green beans :)

Some time ago I ran across the website of a Gastronomic Society from the Basque province of Alava. Wednesday night I finally made a recipe from the site, oxtails in red wine sauce. Unfortunately they didn't turn out well. But hey, I have one more "A" in my list of international cuisines.

Last night I made a cheddar cheese fondue from that fondue book I bought at the library sale. It was quite simple, I browned about 1/2 cup of chopped Canadian bacon, added a glass of white wine and 1/2 lb of shredded medium Cheddar mixed with a couple of tablespoons of flour. To that I added 2 tablespoons of Calvados. I served it with fresh sourdough bread, apple slices and sliced, grilled chicken and apple sausages.

The fondue turned out OK, but it was too thin and too alcoholic tasting - if you make it I'd only use 1/2 cup of wine. I also wouldn't bother with the Canadian bacon. It was good with the sausages, but it didn't work at all with the apples.

For dinner tonight I had a carnitas special quesadilla from Taqueria Los Pericos. As usual it was good, large, though I wish they had better quality guacamole.

I have often written about how rotisseried chicken is one of my favorite meals, none the least of it because it's so easy to make and yet so good. So we have it for dinner probably once every two weeks or so. I used to make my own spice rub, but now I just buy a pre-mixed Cajun rub for greater ease. Last time I made it (Sunday) I used a Safeway organic chicken. At about $2.60 a lb this was almost twice as expensive as their Foster Farms, but organic food is expensive. Mike found it to be particularly juicy, which I'm not sure was a good thing - I didn't think it tasted particularly better than regular chicken. Still, when we can afford it I'll probably buy it.

We served it with snow peas that Mike had bought at the farmer's market, I steamed them, he ate a whole bunch of them.

My international cooking project has been on hold for several months. A difficult pregnancy and a small baby are not really conductive to entertainment. But I miss it, and I want to get through those damn "B"s so I've planned a couple of international dinners in the next few weeks (Bahian and Berber) and decided to make this "Bolivian" week at the Marga household. Rather than cook a whole Bolivian dinner for my family, however, I decided to try a different dish every other night or so. I started last night by making Picante de Pollo or Spicy chicken, an easy yet very typical dish. I'd been meaning to make it for quite a while, but finding yellow pepper (ají amarillo) wasn't easy. It doesn't seem to be available in any of the Latin stores in this area (though I'm told somewhere in the Bay Area there is a large Chilean community) so I had to wait until I went to LA to get some. Even then, I could only find "sauce" rather than powder kind, so I had to adjust the recipe.

It was OK, I thought it was pretty tasteless myself but Mike was very happy with its chicken flavor. It was a bit too spicy for Mika, though, and I'll probably won't make it again, though I'll certainly eat the leftovers.

Last Sunday night I finally cooked my Bahian dinner - as in food from Bahia, Brazil. I had been planning this meal for a WHOLE year. First, I couldn't find dende or palm oil, an essential ingredient of Bahian cuisine. A friend finally gave me a jar, but I was then missing malagueta peppers which I finally came across in a Latin store in LA. Finally armed with all the ingredients, I set a date for the meal and invited my friends Boris, Vienna and Frank over.

The meal was a great success, the food was excellent and unusual. My friend Vienna is from the Caribbean and she hadn't encountered those types of flavors either. As everything is cooked with palm oil, everything is awfully fatty but I imagine Bahians can get away with it as their protein mostly comes from seafood, which is usually low in saturated fats. The palm oil makes most dishes pretty orange as well.

In all, I'm very pleased with how the meal turned out and you can find the whole menu here.

Next on the menu: I may make some more Bolivian dishes this weekend and I have a Berber meal planned for next week.

Saturday night we had our friends Aamani and Kavin over for dinner. Kavin is a vegetarian and, of course, I wanted to make a menu that would be appealing to him. I wanted to integrate the dinner with my international cooking project but, alas, there are not many cuisines that are vegetarian friendly. I consulted my friend Regina, a semi-vegetarian herself, and she suggested Indian, Ethiopian or Mediterranean food. Indeed, she said I could make a vegetable couscous. And that's when lightening struck - couscous, North Africa, Berbers. As I am working (still) on the "b's" this seemed providencial. As it was, I did not have Berber cuisine in my list of cuisines to cook - and even today I'm not sure if there is such a thing as Berber cuisine distinct from North African cuisine - but it was easy enough to add it. After some time searching for recipes online I found enough to make a whole menu.

The food was all delicious, Aamani and Kavin were very impressed and I have a couple of new recipes to incorporate into my repertoire.

You can find my Berber menu at http://www.marga.org/food/int/berber/

A few weeks ago I made a Breton dinner for a few friends and I've finally put up the recipes at:

http://www.marga.org/food/int/brittany

All the food was very, very good - and as soon as it gets cool enough to cook at home again I'm going to make that chicken again.

For dinner tonight we had grilled tri-tip, grilled corn, migas and a celery salad.

Aside from vacío, which you can't get outside of Argentine/Latin butcher shops, tri-tip is my favorite cut to grill. It's flavorful, tender enough and just yummy. I sprinkle it with kosher salt in advance (can also put pepper) and then take it out of the fridge half an hour before we grill it. It's great.

The migas are from an Aragonese recipe. This time I made them just with grapes. The sweetness of the grapes were a nice contrast to the saltiness of the meat - though the whole meal was screaming for some wine, which I hadn't taken to the back yard.

I had a lot of celery to get rid of, and this recipe for celery apple salad dijon seemed like a good way to do it. It was easy, quick and Mike thought it was unusual but good.

In all, it was a great dinner.

Every time we buy meat at Costco it lasts us 3 dinners, I don't like to freeze meat, so once again we had tri-tip for dinner. This time our dinner menu was:

Grilled Tri-Tip with Blue Cheese Butter
Truffled Mashed Potatoes
Grilled Asparagus

To make the blue cheese butter mix softened butter with blue cheese and some chopped garlic (I used the blender to mix it well). Put on wax paper, roll and refrigerate until it hardens. Slice it and serve on top of the meat.

The blue cheese butter worked well with the asparagus as well. To prepare them I washed & dried them and tossed with olive oil and chopped garlic. Grill for about 4 minutes.

To make the mashed potatoes I boiled three peeled and quartered Russet potatoes. I mashed them and mixed with a couple of tablespoons of leftover creme fraiche, a tablespoon or so of milk and as much truffle oil as I needed to get the desire flavor. I also added some kosher salt.

Once again we had a great dinner.

My friend Desiree turned 34 last weekend and she celebrated by inviting us to dinner at her house. She made a delicious and gorgeous Cuban menu and I thought it should be immoratlized by pictures. Alas, I was too busy eating so I forgot to photograph the arroz con pollo which was the dinner's main dish.

The girl can bake - not only was the bread gorgeous but also delicious, specially with the soup

The breadpudding was delish

During my trip to Rockridge earlier this week I picked up some rabbit at Enzo's Meat and Poultry shop. It was then time to look for a recipe, and as usual Epicurious came to the rescue. Even though I now own a gazillon cookbooks, I often resort to Epicurious as their recipes are user-reviewed and this one for Rabbit with Mustard Sauce got good reviews.

It was great. The rabbit itself wasn't that wonderful - but then again, I seldom find rabbit meat to be that flavorful by itself - but the sauce was delicious. It was also fairly simple to make and calls for few ingredients. I think next time I'll make it with chicken instead, however - and I'll definitely make it again!

A few weeks ago we had our friends Victoria and Geoffrey over for dinner and I made a Bulgarian meal. I had never cooked Bulgarian food before (thus this project) and I was pleasantly surprised. It was much better than I thought it could be. I was very surprised to find out that Bulgarian food has quite in common with Californian food, in particular its emphasis on local, fresh and seasonal ingredients. Bulgarians are particularly fond of vegetables, and its cuisine (which is a relative of both Balkan and Ottoman cuisine) features many vegetarian main dishes. As I have several semi-vegetarian friends, it's good to know where I can find recipes they may like.

My menu and comments are available at http://www.marga.org/food/int/bulgaria/

Last week was my birthday - and this year I decided to celebrate it thrice. I had a "Murder Mystery Birthday party" the Saturday before, a pizza & cake party the evening of, and a tea party the Saturday following it. Plus my friend Regina took me out for brunch the day after the first party. Cool birthday week :)

The murder mystery we played for the first party was Free Form Game's Curse of the Pharaoh, a role playing game situated in Egypt in the late 19th century. I didn't really want to serve an Egyptian menu - I lived for a year in Egypt and I wasn't terribly fond of the food - but I still wanted to keep with the Middle Eastern theme - while keeping things as easy as possible. So I served an array of spreads: flavored hummus and Tahina sauce from Trader Joe's, leftover bulgarian red-pepper and eggplant spreads, homemade cucumber-yogurt salad (salt diced cucumber and let it drain, mix with plain yogurt, crumbled dried or fresh mint, chopped garlic, season with salt & pepper) and pita bread. I also added some stuffed olives, also from TJ's. For dinner I made my famous Chicken Tagine with honey and apricots. This is a relatively simple dish to make and it's absolutely delicious. It also escales well (I doubled the recipe to serve 13, and we probably had enough food left over for 4), it's exotic yet accessible and works great for company. People loved it. I served it with buttered couscous.

For dessert there was birthday cake - a little chocolate & almond cake from Just Desserts I got at Costco. It was $15 - the same price as their larger chocolate cakes (which I was going to get before I saw these ones) - and much, much better. The cake was quite moist and very rich, and it fed 13 of us with several leftover slices. I served it with vanilla ice cream.

In all, the food was excellent, the game a lot of fun, and the company couldn't have been better.

Thank you Mike for organizing it, and Regina, Lola, Iggy, Vienna, Frank, Victoria, Geoffrey, Penelope, Ramiro, Desiree and Grant for coming and making it possible!

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The day of my birthday I had a small party to which a few friends who couldn't make it to the mystery party came. I got stuffed pizzas from Zacchary's, which are, of course, my favorite. This time I ordered a Mediterranean pizza for the vegetarians among us and it was quite good - it has feta cheese, artichoke hearts, olives and peppers. Of course, I got a cheese one for the kids and a chorizo one for the meat lovers among us. We were all in cheese heaven.

I also made my mixed greens salad and I actually ate quite a bit of it :)

For dessert I got a Safeway three-mousse cake. I've gotten this cake several times before and it's always a crowd pleaser. Nobody can believe it actually comes from Safeway. It's also about $15 and it feeds 12 quite easily (it's also rich so you don't need to serve huge slices).

In all I had a great time, and I was quite happy to be able to share this time with friends.

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Finally, last Saturday I went to tea with my usual gang of friends, though this time Boris also joined us. We went to the Garden Court at the Palace Hotel and, of course, I had a great time. I already wrote a review which is waiting Mike's editing but in summary the place was beautiful, the food was amazing, the teas were high quality, but the service was rushed and we felt unwelcomed to linger. That's too bad as otherwise it could have been a superb experience.

Afterwards we went to the Ferry building and tried some olive oils. I was too full to try anything else, though Charlotte actually managed to eat a whole hotdog! It was a nice afternoon.

Now my birthday is over, but Sunday is mother's day so I still have something to look forward to :)

Yesterday, for once in a blew moon, our Sunday was not booked (saved for an early morning meeting at Zocalo, where I enjoyed a chocolate croissant if you want to know), so I suggested to Mike that we have friends over for some Zachary's. We hadn't had some in a while, and, you have to admit it, their pizza is phenomenal. Instantly we thought of Eddie and Arthur, given that they're out "last minute dinner friends;" this is not to say that we don't have dinner with them on other occasions, but they're often game for a last minute meal.

Alas, we didn't have a good connection when we were talking on the phone - and I think my accent is getting thicker, people keep asking me to repeat myself - so Eddie understood "daiquiris" instead of "Zachary's;" by the time we clarified the confusion Eddie had a craving for daiquiris and Mike for Zachary's - so we ended up getting both.

Zachary's - one chorizo, one extra cheese - was as good as usual, and surprisingly warm by the time Mike got it home. It helped that we were all ready to eat by then. The daiquiris were also very good, even though they came from a frozen mix - much better than the second batch Arthur made, this time using frozen strawberries.

So we had Zachary's and daiquiris, and a great evening seeing friends.

The meal was specially good as our food prospects for the week sound dire. We have meetings tonight, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I'm thinking of having a date on Friday - it's been a while. So tonight we'll probably have some frozen ravioli and no ideas what I'll have the other nights. Something VERY quick - as I've discovered that I just cannot have Camila in the kitchen while I cook. Yesterday she burned herself with the George Foreman. :(

anyway, happy cooking or eating out :)

I have been so busy with work, SLCAN and Mike's Campaign - not to mention the girls and trying to keep up with the home, that I haven't really have much in the way of time to cook regular food, much less international food. But by sheduling it over a month in advance, I managed to get an evening for a meal with our (new) friends Parker & Donovan. I made Bosnian food, and once again I was quite surprised at how good it was. Their kofta-like meatballs, seasoned only with salt, pepper and Hungarian paprika, were particularly delicious.

The menu and recipes will be up on my website as soon as I can manage the time.

I know it's late, but I'm finally blogging about my Thanksgiving 2006 meal. As you may recall I wanted to make something not too traditional as Lola and Ignatius were coming after they had already a traditional meal at their family's. But while the menu kind of worked out, the timing didn't. I was a bit early with the cooking - though not with the putting the kids to sleep - so by the time Lola and Iggy arrived we were pretty much all packed up. Oh well, they got to enjoy dessert.

Anyway, the menu went pretty much according to plan. I didn't serve the bread with any of the dips - it was just us and I was too busy cooking, so we went straight to the main dish:

Braised Whole Chicken with Bread Stuffing and Bacon. As I say in the recipe, it was quite good though I managed to cook the damn thing upside down. Kids liked it, we liked it.

Zuni's Mashed Potatoes. I didn't use buttermilk, just cream, and they were delicious - but they did turn cold too quickly. I'm making them again for Xmas and this time I think I'll use the buttermilk.

Chevy's Corn Tomalito. It was good, but it had too high a corn kenel to pudding ratio. Next time I'd use half as much, I might also use a bit more sugar. Note that there are two tomalito recipes going around, I used this one - the one that uses butter and is cooked in the oven.

Green Bean Casserole. I wanted to make this as it's such a traditional Thanksgiving dish and Mike said he liked it. Well, he didn't really like my version. Perhaps it was 'cause I used fresh green beans, steamed, instead of canned ones. In any case, I doubt I'll make it again.

Apple Pie. I use commercial crusts (which didn't prove that good this time) and I toss sliced peeled apples, cinnamon, sugar and a pinch of ground cloves.

Store bought pumpkin pie.

That was it, we enjoyed most of it and had a great time together - even if it took me all day to cook :)