First of all, sorry for the prolonged absence. Obviously, I have been cooking and eating this whole time, but fell off the blog wagon. I’m back.
Back to things cooked and eaten too quickly to take pictures: three day weekend edition:
- Manchego and Parmesan encrusted shrimp over fresh tagliatelli with garlic and lemom
- Kumquat preserves
- Applesauce and wheat germ muffins
- TACOS featuring Paprika and cornmeal encrusted fish, cumin-cilantro slaw, guacamole, corn salsa, and a citrus mint spritzer
- For week: red curry with sweet potatoes, tofu, red bell peppers, and snow peas.
Things I learned:
Burn lesson I: Garlic burns easily, when they say cook it at a very low temperature, don’t impatiently turn up heat and leave pan to go defrost shrimp.
Using paper towels (and kitchen cloths) to clean burned garlic butter from frying pan is infinitely better than hot grease/steam burns in sink. (Mom don’t buy me another frying pan when you read this, I know I could use another one, but the stove top is so slow and I was so annoyed I didn’t want to lose heat/momentum.)
New ingredient: Manchego is a delicious cheese and I wish it cost less. Anyone know of other sheep cheeses we could try?
Burn II: Don’t try to toast wheat germ in your toaster oven; you are doomed to smoky failure. Untoasted wheat germ is still deliciously nutty and flavorful.
Even though it is intimidating, more expensive than anything else I eat, and used to be animated, seafood is delicious and cooking it is not rocket science.
If closed liquor stores thwart your last minute idea for margaritas, make strong mint tea, juice lemons, limes, and an orange (or really whatever) and combine with sugar and ice till it tastes good. If you want to be fancy, add club soda instead of water.
Kumquat preserves taste good with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and desert. Per Mom’s advice, next time I might add a cinnamon stick or vanilla bean to the boiling kumquat-sugar pan to flesh out the flavor.
Bonus one week ago baking: Best. Chocolate. Cake. In. History! I’ve made it twice and it is forgiving, but more importantly, MOUTH WATERINGLY DELICIOUS. It is also absurdly large. Be prepared (and invite friends over).
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Double-Chocolate-Layer-Cake-101275
