To start, Joan and I just had a quiet New Years (quite on
purpose), staying in just enjoying the evening together. We made one of our fallback recipes, a
mushroom risotto, having it simply with a crusty baguette and sparkling apple
cider. We both thought the risotto was
good but agreed that something was off and not as good as usual. I suspect it was either the cheese or the
mushrooms were not the same as we normally use, but we’ll see what happens the
next time we make it.
I’m also trying to make a point (or resolution I guess) to
cook something new at least once a week.
It’s really easy to get rutted in a continual cycle of meal favorites. Last week’s new meal was Slow Cooker Thai
Peanut Chicken. It was easy enough, like
most slow cooker recipes are – just dump, mix, and heat – but, like the off
risotto, Joan and I thought it was just not quite as good as it could be. It’s rare that we don’t tinker with new found
recipes so maybe it was to be expected.
Again, the chicken and the sauce were really good over rice but we’re
thinking it may be better over noodles.
The spicing needs to be tweaked too.
If we can perfect it, then I’ll share the recipe.
Joan's sensible normal sized portion.
My giant portion. Really, there is a chicken breast under there somewhere.
Even the easiest of things seem too need tweaking lately. One night last week we did breakfast for
dinner and I set forth making omelets.
Usually I’m very good at this, but each of our omelets just ended up
being scrambled eggs with vegetables mixed in.
Whereas I’ve never had a problem before, the egg kept sticking to our
nonstick pan. I’m still perplexed about
the issue. Is the pan wearing out? Is my technique off and do I need to consult Julia? Whatever it is, at least the eggs tasted just
as good, omelet form or not.
My fighting with sticky nonstick pan continued though later
in the week when I wanted to a nice breakfast fry up for myself for dinner
(Joan was off at a dinner for work). The
plan was to do fried potatoes in the pan, wipe it clean, and then fry some
eggs. Well the potatoes stuck to the pan
– I mean really stuck to the pan – and while I managed to rescue most of the
potatoes, there was no way I could use the pan for frying eggs too. As we only have the one nonstick pan, I then
had to get out a normal stainless steel pan and really test my skills to fry an
egg in that. There indeed was some
sticking, but the eggs came out fine considering. Lastly, I made some toast, poured myself a
beer, and finally sat down to my hard-fought dinner.
This week is fairing much better so far fortunately. Quesadillas were made without any fuss and
last night’s fish dinner consisting of baked tilapia, couscous, and green beans
was whipped up easily. The rest of the
planned dinners this week shouldn’t give any problems either. Even our new recipe will be easily as it’s
just a different take on shepherd’s pie, a dish Joan and I very familiar with.
Looking further forward, I’ve been scouring the cookbooks more
interesting food is on the way. A few of
these are things that I’ve wanted to try for awhile. But I’ll leave it there (leaving things
hanging), I don’t want to post until it happens.
