Pasties

After an extraordinary, fun and yet long week involving raging backache, work stress, not living at home, visiting with my sister and more, the Brit consoled me with homemade Cornish pasties.



And Heinz beans, or I should say "beanz" which are the "proper" British import (more tomatoey than ours and still yummy).

Flaky pastry, very tasty beef, diced rutabega and potatoes all very hot and utterly gorgeous.

More pantry clean-out meals

Sigh. It continues.

Filed under "yum":

Mix 1 tin tuna with 1 small tin white beans, some chopped sundried tomatoes, chives, a glob of mayo and a smaller glob of Dijon. Mix. Take to work for lunch, with or without salad greens.

Grate 3 carrots. Ponder the fact that eternity is defined as a single girl and a 3-lb bag of carrots. Mix into carrots a small handful of chopped roasted cashews, some raisins, chopped chives, a generous pinch of curry powder, a glob of mayo and the juice of half a lime.

Boil some fettuccine. Meanwhile, pour a good glug of olive oil into your favourite pasta bowl, add a ton of grated Parmesan, a ton of ground pepper, some chopped chives (will they never go away??) a pinch of chili flakes and a double pinch of salt. Add the hot fettucini and toss with a fork while walking towards the couch.

Happy Anniversary

This blog began as a creative refuge from the drudgery of my daily job. I was in a dead-end chef's job where the people I worked for cared less and less about food and more and more about the bottom line. I spent far more time at my desk than at the stoves. On top of that, I was living alone in a very hot apartment with a strange kitchen. I was a professional chef who didn't cook -- either at home or at work. Making chicken liver paté for a party was the highlight of my month.

Ok, quit it with the miniature violin. All this is simply to say hurray. It's been a year. A wonderful, full-of-changes year. The food has been extraordinary, heart-melting, boring, simple, fancy and perfect.

Thank you for reading.

When a red pepper is more than a red pepper

It struck me as I was riding home that there was a red pepper in the fridge. Elation. Glee. Oh the possibilities. And here I was thinking there was nothing vegetal left but onions and some softening potatoes. So a lovely Spanish tortilla for supper used the pepper, the remaining eggs and potatoes as well as some scratchings off a very very dry hunk of Parmesan from the depths of the fridge. Oh and 2 big spoonfuls of our endlessly-useful tomato chutney from last summer. (There are 2 open jars of chutney in the fridge. Oops.)


But there's a wrinkle in my Pantry Attack Regime: tomorrow I'm due to develop 5 recipes for the September issue, which means all sorts of new ingredients will be coming into the kitchen. Thus prolonging the assault.

And now for the lentils

I needed to make at least an attempt on the surfeit of legumes, so into the soup pot went 2 chopped onions, 1/2 cup of red lentils, all of the basmati rice and the remaining capon stock. While it burbled away, epicurious.com told me that if I only added some saffron and a squeeze of lemon, this mish mash of pantry excesses could be called harira, the traditional fast-breaking soup for Ramadan. Well if that isn't the prettiest sounding word. Talk about a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Ooh, and lunch for the next few days.


And if you're keeping track, there are just 3 types of rice left -- brown basmati, parboiled and sushi.

Pantry Attack Update

It's going very well so far. Of note:

Scallops with bacon and peas over egg pasta used half the available frozen bacon and most of the peas.

Celery risotto used up the last of the wilty vegetable, half of the capon stock and all of the arborio rice. I served it with roasted chicken thighs from the freezer. Now there are only 4 types of rice to use up.

We split the leftover Bolognese sauce for today's lunch.

So far I have only bought milk and a french stick, but I'll likely need green veg over the next day or two. I've also realised that it would be physically impossible to eat all of the jam in the fridge, and that eating all the available lentils and dried beans might be unwise.