The Smells in My Kitchen

[Eaquae Legit]

Homemade pizza tonight!! Feta, pineapple, and garlic, mmmmmm.

Who's got a suggestion for something veggie-laden and cheap for the coming week?

[steph]

I suggest potato soup. Yum! I might make it tomorrow.

[Eaquae Legit]

We had potato soup not long ago, but perhaps borscht... I do love borscht.

[Luet]

I made rice pudding tonight for a superbowl party tomorrow. Although it's made with almond milk, so I hope it's okay. It tastes okay to me but a bit less rich than usual. It smells really good.

Then, I decided to recreate a beet salad that I had recently at a restaurant. I've never actually made beets before. So, now it kind of smells earthy in here while I make beets. The salad is mixed greens and beets and gorgonzola and orange vinaigrette. I'm excited!

[Eaquae Legit]

How was the rice pudding, Nomi? I love rice pudding. Have you ever made the Indian variety, called kheer?

Tonight we got lazy and bought a bag of pre-chopped veg and a bag of egg noodles, and just fried them up together. However, I got the soy sauce/vinegar/hot sauce mixture just right, and it was delicious! Not a bad meal for under 2 quid. I can definitely see us making it with some frequency, possibly putting it on our "lazy meals" go-to list.

Oh, and naga pickle rocks. Such a nice tasting hot sauce, a little more flavour than sriracha.

[steph]

We do that a lot, Ali. I usually scramble and egg with it for some protein.

My kitchen smells like potato soup and fresh baked rolls! Later, it will smell like donuts when my sister demonstrates her mini donut maker.

[Luet]

The rice pudding was actually a hit! I was kind of surprised because I didn't think it was that great but some people went back for seconds.

Oh, and the beet salad was amazingly good. Though, I wish beets were a little easier to make...my fingers and nails are still stained from the peeling and chopping.

[LilBee91]

Nutella Puffs and Cream Puffs:


We had a bit of a problem with the bottoms of the puffs falling out when we got them off the pan. But besides that, they turned out wonderful and delicious.

[Jayelle]

Looks yummy!


Not exactly a smell, but I made chocolate sauce and made banana splits tonight. Helps the stupid Ice Milk to taste better when you have a bunch of toppings!

[steph]

Holy cow. I just made marshmallows! And they were easy!! I bought lots of extra gelatin packets for mess ups until I got it right, but it was right on the first try! SO easy!

[Petra456]

I LOVE making homemade marshmallows! Will loves when I make them into rice crispy treats! Mmm....

[Eaquae Legit]

Roasted red peppers with fennel, topped with olive bruschetta mix and cheese, then baked. On a bed of rocket with some yoghurt on the side, and a sumac and lemon couscous.

I am very vain and love it when someone walks into the kitchen and says "WHOA something smells good!"

[Eaquae Legit]

We had a very odd but delicious Thai/British fushion thing tonight. That makes 3 whole recipes with beets in that I like! Spicy beetroot and coconut soup, from the Accidental Vegetarian. Thank you, Simon Rimmer, for once again coming through for me.

[Luet]

I just sauteed a whole bunch of swiss chard with olive oil, garlic and lemon juice. I planned on trying a bit now and eating the rest with dinner tonight but it was so good that I ate it all!

[Claire]

I had the best snack today. Kale, sprinkled with salt, pepper and olive oil, roasted in the oven until dried. Better than popcorn.

[Eaquae Legit]

This week's menu includes:
* barley soup
* egg fried rice
* yoghurt curry
* sammiches (egg mayo and maybe even cress)
* penne with red pesto and grilled red peppers

I'm quite excited about the sammiches. We're going to try the 1-minute bread recipe Jan and Paul posted. Prep it at night, bake it in the morning. Hurrah ciabatta!

[steph]

I'm quite excited about the sammiches. We're going to try the 1-minute bread recipe Jan and Paul posted. Prep it at night, bake it in the morning. Hurrah ciabatta!

I used it in a bread class i helped teach a couple of weeks ago and it was a huge hit! I made loaves with 5 different toppings. I used combos of garlic, herbs, salt, cheese, and then one with chai seasoning mix. The loaf that had chai, I made into french toast for breakfast the next morning and it was the most amazing french toast I've ever had! My mom made it, convinced my dad to make it for a dinner that he's catering at church this week (my mom was quite happy that I got my dad baking bread), my aunts, cousins and sister have all started making it, plus who knows how many women from church have started making it now since the bread class. It's an awesome recipe!

[Eaquae Legit]

Those all sound like amazing ideas! I'll have to try the chai one! I'm also inspired to maybe use some of the red pesto on top sometime. Yummmmm.

[buckshot]

We dug up some carrots and parsnips today (they are covered up with straw and a tarp so they won't freeze) to cook for dinner. I like them this time of the year best , they seem to taste so much better the carrots get kinda sweet. Anyway Julie cut up the parsnips and cooked them with butter, garlic ,little honey and a little slosh of white wine and they were awsome!

[Eaquae Legit]

* barley soup
* penne with red pesto and grilled red peppers

The barley soup/stew was alright. Could have benefitted from some onion and garlic, which we were out of. The penne with pesto and peppers was deeeeelicious. Yum.

[Rei]

Yes indeed, quite. Although The Mystery Of The Missing Pesto may go ever unsolved, alas.

[steph]

In honor of National Pancake Day, we had breakfast for dinner! I made whole wheat apple pear pancakes with warm maple syrup and over easy eggs. The boys had thirds.

[Eaquae Legit]

The homemade "crazy bread" tonight was delicious! Not quite oily enough, but probably healthier, lol. But plenty garlicky and cheesey. Yum!

[Jayelle]

I made Chicken Pot Pie for Pi Day! It was so yummy.

I would have made a pie for dessert too, but sadly, we have no ingredients and there's a blizzard outside.

[LilBee91]

I made my first attempt at chicken curry yesterday. It was a little milder than I would have liked, but for a first attempt I won't complain. And I made apple pie from scratch for the first time. Yay for pi day and baking!

[Eaquae Legit]

We had a delicious, delicious phaal curry tonight with "quorn" chicken pieces and fresh peppers. I'm so thrilled to be back at the curry shop.

[Young Val]

Growing up in in my family birthday traditions were a plenty, and the best one revolved around food. The birthday person got to choose whatever they wanted to be served for dinner and dessert (or whichever main meals they liked, really, sometimes all three!). I was never faithful to any one dinner request--although I asked for my mom's lasagna (singular!) several times at least, but I always, always--for as long as I can remember--have had cheesecake for dessert on my birthday, in lieu of the traditional layer cake with frosting. Cheesecake - <3.

I fully intend to continue this tradition when I start my own family, so I've spent the last few years getting David on board. Last year he requested bagels (which I naturally had to make from scratch. They were GREAT) and an Almond Orange Olive Oil cake which I was SURE was going to taste terrible and actually tasted obscenely delicious.

His birthday is this Saturday, and this year he has requested....

croissants.

Homemade, almond-cream-filled croissants. (He really loves almonds).

I am so very afraid of laminated doughs. I've managed to avoid them entirely in my baking excursions thus far, but this weekend I will spend two days turning dough. Oh dear. Words of encouragement, please!

[Luet]

I will be very impressed and can't wait to hear how they turn out. Almond croissants sound incredible. Have fun and he is one lucky man!

[steph]

You can do it!!! I know you'll be awesome at it. And just think of how worth it it will be! Yum!

[starlooker]

You can SO do this, Kelly. I have nothing but faith in you. Come on. Look how far you've come in your cooking and baking since you started getting serious about it. Everything you've done was new to you once. So. Deep breaths. Mis en place, pay close attention to the recipe, and approach project with optimistic, yet reverent, attitude. Look forward to hearing about it!

[Eaquae Legit]

Wow, Kirsten! Can I hire you as a motivator?

[Young Val]

Seriously, Kirsten. I will pay you in baked goods if you will just follow me around all the time and say encouraging things to me!

Thank you all for your kindness and encouragement! I will definitely post about it when all is said and done, and I figure, even if they don't rise, or don't flake, or if the filling runs out everywhere and burns my oven...nothing with that much butter can possible taste bad, right?

Speaking of butter, I think that's the part of the ordeal I'm most looking forward to. I have to take over a pound of cold butter and make it "pliable" without "shattering." The method for this is apparently to lay it out on the table and beat it repeatedly with a rolling pin, occasionally stopping to scrape it back together in one lump and then continue to whack at it. Sounds sort of fun...

[Petra456]

Speaking of butter, I think that's the part of the ordeal I'm most looking forward to. I have to take over a pound of cold butter and make it "pliable" without "shattering." The method for this is apparently to lay it out on the table and beat it repeatedly with a rolling pin, occasionally stopping to scrape it back together in one lump and then continue to whack at it. Sounds sort of fun...

This alone makes me want to try making croissants. I love croissants, but the recipes always scare me.

I've been so blah about baking lately, I just feel lazy about it or that nothing sounds right to make.

[starlooker]

Absolutely!

[Young Val]

Fred, I've always wanted to do something like the Daring Baker's Challenge, but was a little intimidated and didn't think I could always commit to a strict time frame.

I'd be willing to do a sort of modified version of it, though, here on pweb if anyone is interested. The basic premise is that people take turns picking recipes for a challenge. The recipe is posted and whoever wants to participate takes a crack at making it within a certain time frame (a month? two? four?). Then you post pictures of your end result, and write a little bit about your experience of making it. Then it's someone else's turn to pick a recipe, and so on. It doesn't have to be strictly baking; savory recipes are welcome as well. And although difficult recipes can be fun to tackle, they don't HAVE to be complicated to count as a challenge.

I'm just thinking of how many of us went on to try making a Dutch Baby after Jan posted about it, or Steph's mac & cheese, or any of the recipes people have posted up here. Even something simple can be something new and fun to try. And if you find you're too busy to participate in one round, or the recipe isn't in line with your diet (not vegetarian/contains allergens/etc) then you can either just skip it or make a modified version.

Again, don't know if anyone would be interested or not, but it's something I've thought about before, and Fred's post about being uninspired in the kitchen brought it to mind again.