Musings of a Sunday Night

I have a stomach ache. Just thought I'd share.

I made chicken curry a few days ago and re-heated it again tonight. The potatoes are being a pain and don't want to cook through. But otherwise I was satisfied. I put in dahl which provided a nice crunch. I made naan and basmati rice as accompaniments. Gotta love naan. It would have been great if I had a mango lassi to go with it, but alas, mangoes are not in season right now.

I don't recall eating Indian food when I was younger, but I have quite the penchant for it. In fact, I love it. All of it. I have yet to find an Indian dish I do not like (most are kosher too, which is awesome). I love the flavors and how to different spices make everything taste awesome. For the curry, I didn't use curry powder, but instead mixed together a bunch of spices. I didn't have fenugreek though, and my husband likes his food spicy, so in the end I put in some curry powder. That's not the point though. The point is - well, I just love all the spices! I don't recall really ever thinking about spices until recently. For my wedding my aunt got me a big box full of fancy spices, and it was seriously one of the best presents we got. I have been putting spices in everything, including my coffee. I am starting to wonder, how did I ever live without spices before? I can see why Europeans were so eager to get their hands on spices in the Middle Ages.

Anyways. I got take out from Le's (formerly known as Pho Pasteur) today. Got the chicken pad thai. SO GOOD. Not too much egg. Just the right amount of peanuts. Tons of noodles and chicken and veggies. I ordered and within five minutes my lunch was in my hands, ready to take back to the house and enjoy. I just wish there were more snap peas in there, because I love those. I can't believe I've lived here for so long and never gone there (I went to the one in Allston). I think it's because for a long, long time I just was not adventurous (like pad thai is really that adventurous....) so I stuck to what I knew.

I bought a cookbook that revolves around chocolate, but I keep leaving it in the car. I'll be psyched once I bring it in the house and actually make something from it. It seemed a little more adventurous when I was flipping through it than your average chocolate chip cookies & chocolate cakes cookbooks (I bought it at Crow's in Burlington VT - a used book store on the promenade). I'll report back when I finally make something.

Have a good week!

Happy New Year

2008 is here. And I have a cold. Lovely. But I finally got around to uploading some pictures of my recent baking forays. I might try some more bread later today - we'll see how I feel.

I made goat cheese and chocolate truffles the other day. I liked them. No one else wanted to try them. I just mixed goat cheese, confectioner's sugar, and dark chocolate ganache; chilled the mixture for 30 minutes, then rolled in to balls and coated in cocoa powder.

For the holidays, I made a Scandinavian spice cake with applesauce filling and a brandy & molasses whipped cream frosting. I was surprised how well it came out. Cakes are something I am still learning, but this one didn't fall or spill over. I only cut it in to two layers instead of three because one of my cats wouldn't leave me alone and I just gave up. The end product didn't look amazing but it tasted very good.

I bought a cook book that focuses on chocolate and I am psyched to try it out. I also got a new All Clad saucier on sale up in Burlington VT. I have some loose earl grey tea so I think I am going to make some earl grey chocolate truffles. I also want to try to infuse chocolate with wine and see what I can come up with.

This winter is going to be very busy (3 classes - one of which starts a week from today) but I am determined to cook and bake as much as possible.

Have a good new year!

Goings On About My Kitchen

This has not been a slow cooking week, that's for sure. A few days ago I made Moravian Molasses Thins. I have made molasses cookies many times before, but never molasses thins. Most of them were pretty thin, but after a while I got lazy and stopped rolling the dough out quite as thin. I also used a new ginger powder, rather than fresh ginger, and it was much more ginger-y, so the cookies came out quite ginger-y as well. If you love ginger, then you probably would have loved these cookies. I liked them - though they could have been less ginger-y.

Tonight I made goat cheese truffles. I haven't tried one yet, but I did like the spoon I used to stir everything together and OO LA LA they were yummy. It chilled for an hour, and then I rolled it out in to balls and coated with sifted cocoa powder, and now they are chilling again. I can't wait to try one - they look and smell so damn good!!

I also made spice cookies. I did not have high hopes for the recipe, since the dough was wicked crumbly and most of it stuck to my hands. The recipe only yielded like 7 cookies as well. I decided to try one and I was pleasantly surprised. It was spicy, but not overwhelmingly so. The cookie did not fall apart in my hand. I can safely say that it was very good. I tried another one, and came to the same conclusion. I am totally satisfied with this recipe. A+ will make again.

I have been meaning to bake various things for people's Christmas presents, but I have not really had the time nor the energy. We'll see if I ever get to it, especially with time being of the essence right now.

Goodnight.

Brunch And Such

Right now my cat Lily is sleeping by my head. This is something she has never done before. It's cute and awesome.

Anyways, Saturday my husband and I met up with some friends for brunch at Johnny D's in Davis Sq. I'd never been there for brunch before, just pizza and trivia night. I was surprised to find no line, but it was about 1pm, so I suppose I should not have been that surprised. There were definitely a lot of people there, and it's a large enough space to hold quite a crowd. I ordered my usual cup of coffee, but also decided to treat myself and get a Mimosa. It had quite a lot of ice, but was still yummy. For food, I ordered a cup of grits with butter to start out with. They were yummy, but not as yummy as I remember from when I lived in Atlanta. Then I ordered 2 eggs scrambled with hash browns and wheat toast. The eggs were quite good - not too dry, and there was definitely no chunks of meat (or whatever) from other people's orders mixed in. They were fluffy to, which always leads to the illusion that there are lots more eggs on your plate than in reality. The hash browns were also good. They were seasoned with something that I can't quite put my finger on. Parsley too. I don't like parsley, but I couldn't taste this, so I was fine. The toast didn't really have any butter on it though. From what I could tell, everyone else enjoyed their food too. The service was great, and it was nice to be able to chill out for a bit after eating. So many places try to rush you out that it's no fun.

After brunch we headed over to Magpie to do some shopping. It's a cute store. Well worth your time if you are in the area. Afterwards, we went to Kickass Cupcakes for some treats. The cupcakes were pretty kickass, so I guess the name works =)

Dinner!

I've actually been cooking a lot lately, which is awesome. Last night I made chicken with yogurt & Indian spices - cinammon, turmeric, curry powder, cardamom, etc. I got to use my awesome Le Creuset dutch oven. It came out pretty well, but could have used more spices. I also made naan, but I failed to read the recipe till too late and didn't realize that it needed to rise for 1 and a 1/2 hours....the chicken was almost done when I started the naan, so it only rose for about 30 minutes. It still tasted pretty decent, though I should have rolled it out about more (I didn't actually roll them - I just smoothed them out with my hands). All in all it was decent, but there is absolutely room for improvement.

Tonight I made meatloaf, mashed potatoes, peas, and BREAD!! Best loaf of bread I have made yet. Such a smooth consistency - so yummy. The meatloaf came out well, though it was less of a loaf and more just flat. The mashed potatoes tasted really good, but mashed potatoes always taste good. The peas were just plain old frozen peas.

But the BREAD!! Ooooh so good! I can't find the thing for uploading my pictures, but once I do I will publish them, because this was a damn good specimen of bread.

Also, it's the second night of Hannukah. Last night my husband gave me clocky which is totally awesome! My cats are petrified of it.

I've been busy

My apologies for not posting recently. I've been pretty busy, and by the time I get home I have no energy to type. Along with the busy-ness, I have had no time to cook, so I have been eating out a lot lately. For the most part it's just been pizza and the like, but I did get take-out from Wonder Spice the other day. I hadn't been to Wonder Spice in I don't know how long. It's a bit of a hike to JP from Brighton, but I decided to grab some take-out, as I had nothing else to do. Whatever I got the last time I was there was sooo good, but I couldn't remember what it was, so I went for ol' faithful and got Sweet and Sour Chicken. I asked for pan fried noodles and a side of white rice, but the noodles were forgotten, and I didn't realize until I got home. I had expected pineapple to be in the dish as well, but there was none. And then the sauce leaked. Everywhere. That being said, the chicken and veggies tasted good, and the sauce was quite yummy. I mixed some in with my white rice and it was quite good. I think the next time I go, it will have to be for sit down. The wait staff was very nice - they let me sit there and wait since it was wayyy too cold to go back outside. And it was cheap - only 10$ for the whole dish, and it was huge. When I was walking back to my car I noticed another Thai restaurant (next to the Indian restaurant on Centre St - Bhakara I think that one is called) that I want to check out, since I have been wicked in to Thai lately.

Today I hit up the Druid in Inman for lunch with some folks. I also had not been there in forever (lately I have just been sticking to Allston & Brighton, occassionaly heading over to Harvard). It's tiny, but I really like the atmosphere and the fact that it's low key. It does not try to be anything it's not. I wasn't feeling adventurous, so I just went for a hamburger with fries (and 2 Magners, of course). The fries still had the potato skin on them, and they tasted very good. I don't really like fries that taste like they had been in a freezer for months, and this was definitely not the case. Plus they had just the right amount of seasonings, though I wish there had actually been more fries. But I guess it's good that there weren't, since fries are my weakness and I could eat them always. The burger was also good - I only get it with lettuce and mayo. It was definitely more than medium, as I had asked for, but that's ok. It was juicy and there was just enough mayo. Too much and it's gross, too little and it's too dry. The lettuce was not the standard iceburg, which is cool, since iceberg can get really old after a while. I think it was mixed greens, but I didn't really examine the lettuce too closely. The bun was a bit too store bought-y (if you know what I mean), but that's also just fine. Our waiter was nice; he didn't bother us except to clear our plates, which is just what you need on a lazy, freezing Saturday afternoon. All in all a good time, and I'll definitely be heading back there soon.

So when I said earlier in this post that I hadn't cooked at all lately, I lied. I made pasta for the second time ever a few days ago. The first time ever was a few days before that, and I failed miserably. Hahaha. This time was better, but not by much. I cut the dough in to four pieces, and the first piece ended up being sacraficial because there was STILL grime in the pasta machine. After all was said and done, the final product still didn't taste that great. I guess I don't put the dough through the roller enough, the the pasta was pretty thin. I let it sit for about 20 mins after cutting. Perhaps I should have let it sit for longer? This will require some experimenting.

Grocery Shopping

I cannot remember the last time I did serious grocery shopping. I think it was definitely still summer time. We tend to just do bits and pieces here and there, but with Thanksgiving coming up, I needed to do a more serious shop. Except, I don't know, but I feel that grocery stores have become more confusing lately. Or maybe I am just going crazy in my old age. There are certain things I am never able to find at Shaw's, like pignoli nuts and mace (the spice, not the stuff to fend off bad guys). I felt better when I saw a man asking an employee where some things were; at least it is not just me. It took me months to find cake flour.

I think the biggest problem is that I get impatient with all of the people in the store. When I walked in, some lady had parked her cart RIGHT IN THE DOOR so everyone else had to squeeze by on the side. I saw her again a little later, and this time she had blocked one of the aisles with her cart. She had a child with her, or else I would have said something. It's instances like that were I get all flustered and then don't feel like looking for the things I need. I have to go back again tomorrow to get the remaining items on my list.

I had planned to do some more baking tonight, but I have a throbbing headache. I hope am not getting sick. It is probably due to the weather changes and the fact that I got stuck in horrible traffic on the way home from work. One snowflake falls and people start driving like assholes. It's crazy.

Eventually I want to make chocolate mousse and chocolate espresso pots de creme but no one I know really likes chocolate, so perhaps it will be a just-for-Alice-thing. I have a serious thing for chocolate. My friend Diana and I went to the Chocolate Barat Cafe Fleuri at the Langham Hotel a few years back and it was simply awesome. Perhaps I'll have her go with me again. I could seriously go for some chocolate indulgence again soon.