While a friend drove around and around Downtown trying to find our home, I kept the fish pie I’d made for dinner in a low oven. Fish pie is good working-class food where I grew up. I used tilapia and a small amount of smoked salmon—nothing fancy, but robust when coated in a parsley sauce.
Category: Cook
Paella Journeys
I’m making paella for dinner with Dwight’s sister, a reminder of shared experiences in Nerja, Spain. We enjoyed paella cooked over an open fire of burning pallets in a restaurant by the beach. I’ve just made the sofritos base (in the pan) which fills our home with wonderful aromas.
Gluten-Free, Lactose-Free, Calorie-Dense
Made cookies and cream froyo with lactose-free yogurt and gluten-free Oreos. It came out creamy, thanks to the yogurt, which I had strained through cheesecloth for a couple of hours. Sugar, salt (a pinch), vanilla essence, and a tablespoon of rum all lowered the freezing point.
A Taste of Summer
Tonight, we’re having sweet corn. Good local sweet corn has been in short supply this year because of the dry weather, but a friend picked up a supply at the farmers market and passed it on to me. We’ll cook all of it, and shuck what we don’t eat tonight for a salad or wrap another day.
Sausage Saturday Shopping
On my bike ride, picked up the missing ingredients for Sausage Saturday: Ukrainian sausage from Kramarczuk’s, crusty bread from Surdyk’s, and over-packaged baby kale from Lunds and Byerlys.
A Taste of Summer
This is the best time of year for local green beans. Got these beauties at the farmers market. Tonight I’ll serve some of them with classic comfort food: baked mac and cheese.
Migrating Our Digital Recipe Box
Converted our digital recipe box from Evernote to a folder of .docx recipe files in Google Drive. Evernote is changing ownership, with substantial layoffs, which makes me want to secure our recipes in a standard, open, Web-accessible format that is not dependent on a single company.
First Barbecue of 2023.
Today was our first barbecue of 2023: salmon on a cedar plank. The underside of the board burns, imparting a light, smokey flavor. Cleanup is easy.
Peanut Butter Ice Cream
Made peanut butter ice cream. For the last 5 minutes of churning I’ve just added chopped-up miniature peanut butter cups. I’m reminded by this exercise that ice cream is to be enjoyed in moderation. 2 cups of heavy cream, 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of peanut butter, way too much sugar, vanilla extract.
Bulk Cooking
Cooked for multiple meals. In the foreground: slow-baked beans, carnitas, and pan gravy. In the background: sides for this evening (polenta and steamed broccoli).