July 24, 2013 by Andrea

Hanging Out in England

After the big travel day yesterday, we stayed close to home today. We started out with an awesome breakfast at Toad Hall, a local garden centre. We wandered through the roses and fountains and all the plantings for the perfect English Garden. It reminded me a lot of what I grew in Jersey and made me a little wistful for my garden there. We did also discover the building in the back

was an old water tower. That was my first guess with a granary a second guess. After breakfast we headed to Asda (aka British Walmart) just to let the parents experience it. And no Val, we did not get more kitty treats.

We just had a quiet afternoon at home today.

and then we headed to my favorite pub for dinner, The Dog & Badger. I still contend they have the best hamburgers.

It is just a very cute, old pub with great food and truly excellent service. We had a ball.

Oh – and a few pictures Bob took yesterday on their walk.

So tomorrow we are headed to France. Wish us luck as my French is horrible! (And I think I have the best French of the bunch!)

July 23, 2013 by Andrea

Back In The U.K. (Again)

We are back – in Britain, that is. We packed our bags, gathered up Bob’s parents and headed out. There are a few things about this trip that make it special. Obviously we have Bob’s parents with us; they have never been to England so that makes this special. It is the first time they have seen Brad, Emmie and Logan since they moved, and it is a longer trip than we usually make – 10 days this time. … Oh, and we flew First/Business class.

When I started searching, I found most of the tickets pretty much the same price – expensive. It is high season for travel, so I didn’t think I’d find many deals. But, one Saturday morning in February I found First Class tickets – both ways – for what I was seeing coach tickets for. So, I texted Brad and Emmie and made Bob call his parents and we got the tickets … And it happens that these two weeks Logan is out of school – and so am I! So here we are. After a week of Emmie and I counting down hours, after the travel and getting from Heathrow, here we are. Relaxing and enjoying the British country side on our first day in England,

I was skeptical about how much different first class would be than coach, but let me relay a few stories to illustrate the difference. We checked in, no problem. We checked our bags, no problem, we got through security no problem and made our way to the club lounge where we wanted to wait. No two minutes after sitting down the gentleman who checked us in at the lounge came over and told us there were ground delays for flights to Atlanta and he was afraid we would miss our connection to London. He could book us on the earlier flight and transfer our checked bags, but that leg would, not be first class. Would we like that. Hmm … First class with a very good chance of missing the next flight or an hour or so trip in coach. (We weren’t stupid and took the flight change.) we were rebooked, bags moved and seated in one row in the economy plus area for the first flight. Had we been flying coach. We would have missed the London flight as no one would have said anything.

My second story. I don’t sleep on planes, I just can’t do it. So, around 3am (Eastern) everyone else was sleeping and I was reading. I drank Bob’s bottle of water (he was sleeping so I feel no guilt for this), finished it and put it aside. Within five minutes that bottle was gone and a new bottle was left in its place. Nothing was said, no fuss was made. It was just done. When I finished that bottle right before breakfast it was also quickly replaced.

And yes, even though I cannot sleep on a plane (even with a seat that folds flat and a really comfy blanket) it was so much better than flying coach. I didn’t worry about waking Bob (or anyone else) up, I didn’t fret about standing or walking around a bit and I was pretty comfortable reading my way across the Atlantic.

So here we are … hanging out with family, enjoying the country side and just relaxing. I sent Bob on a walk with the camera, so hopefully I can add some of those pictures tomorrow in addition to whatever adventure we decide to have. I can’t wait!

July 17, 2013 by Andrea

Tomato, Zucchini and Chickpea Stew over Polenta

Bob gave me go ahead to add more vegetarian dishes into the rotation after the falafel success and the butternut squash spring rolls. Poor man, doesn’t know exactly what he is in for. Such as … today’s experiment – a variation on a vegan dish from my vegan cookbook.

The original recipe calls for multiple red peppers and eggplant. I don’t happen to like eggplant and Bob does not like bell peppers of most varieties, so this proved challenge number one. Well, I had some leftover orange and yellow pepper and a little red pepper, so I just used those. (This is still clean out and use of what is in the fridge week since we leave next week meals.) I also used zucchini as I like zucchini in place of the eggplant. So I roasted those with some olive oil and roasted a few cloves of garlic. I admit to getting confused on the recipe – it told me to roast the whole bulb, but then only calls for three cloves. While that was roasting, I sautéed some onion in a little olive oil then added spices. I think I used thyme, oregano (from the garden) coriander and pepper. To that went some white wine to deglaze the pan and a can of peeled tomatoes (juice included) that I crushed up as I added them. Add two bay leaves, the chickpeas and the peppers, garlic and zucchini; let simmer for a while. Sorry, I didn’t time this, I really just added, stirred, tasted and added again over the course of an hour or so. I thought it needed more liquid at one point, so I added a half cup of veggie broth.

That did seem to work well and the result as pretty good. I still have an issue with the texture of chickpeas (and beans in general) but I swear I must be doing something wrong since they don’t have that texture in the dishes I eat out (mainly the Indian place that opened up here). But I’ll keep at it until I get it right.

I did make this a non-vegan (but totally vegetarian meal) as I added a goat cheese polenta to the dish. It worked pretty well and is a make again with a few tweaks.

… Oh – the library is done and it came out great!

I figure Bob will get a meat dish tomorrow. I’m cooking for our anniversary as we will celebrate while in Europe next week. (So excited!)

Gratuitous kitty picture ….

He is just too darn cute.

July 16, 2013 by Andrea

Butternut Squash Spring Rolls

As we get ready to head across the pond again, I’m trying to use up everything in my fridge and freezer – at least as much as possible. I made another chicken, ham and leek pie (very, very good), pork chops with roasted green beans (excellent), and tonight’s goat cheese salad with butternut squash spring rolls. Ok, I could have gone with just the salad, but I’ve been dying to try these and the poor squash was still sitting in my fridge so it had to be used. … Or at least that is my story and I’m sticking to it.

The salad was your basic veggie basket stuff – arugula, tomatoes and cucumbers with pecan crusted herbed goat cheese. Super easy (mix herbs from the garden with goat cheese, make into patties, coat in egg and cover with pecans. Freeze then cook at 400 for about ten minutes. The dressing was garlic, shallot, ground mustard, salt, pepper, white balsamic vinegar and olive oil mixed together. Bob said he was impressed with how I “went all out” with the salad. Should I tell him it took longer to find the stuff in the fridge than to make the thing? Nah.

But as I was making him a salad for dinner, I decided to go with the spring rolls too. Once again, I really wanted them and I was trying to find a way to use up everything in the fridge. So … I roasted some raw pumpkin seeds I found on Amazon. (Seriously, you can find anything there.) Olive oil, salt and a 300 degree oven did the trick. I then raised the temp of the oven to 400 (took out the seeds first) and roasted the squash for about 20-25 minutes – again just olive oil and salt. Meanwhile I made some rice noodles and broke out the rice paper (Amazon again … You really do have to almost love the site). I didn’t have the cilantro the recipe called for but I substituted basil from the garden for this. So – layer the rice noodles on the soaked rice paper, add the squash, seeds and basil and roll.

They came out kind of pretty. And they taste really, really good. I did make a dipping sauce to go with them – soy sauce, mirin, white balsamic vinegar, sesame oil and a little sugar. The sauce was fantastic although a slight departure from the recipe in my vegan cookbook where this came from. (I didn’t have Asian chili oil or rice vinegar so I improvised – it worked).

I have another vegetarian experiment tomorrow to use up the chick peas in the fridge then the Greek chicken salad and one more round of chicken, ham and leek pie (frozen, but from the same batch as this last one). Here’s to hoping it all comes out ok with limited disasters.

July 8, 2013 by Andrea

Picture Perfect

Falafel is one of the few vegan dishes I make where Bob doesn’t comment about eating food his food eats. He loves the things and still tells me of the mythical falafel place in NYC that he has somehow never taken me to. But after the totally inedible experiment last year (where we did actually just go out to eat since we could not eat what I made – the only time that had happened) I’ve been hesitant to try them again. But after a year, and with a huge craving for the things, I tried again. This time we had success.

I started out with the chickpeas that I froze after the experiment last year. I boiled them again, thinking this may have been part of the problem and then let them sit in the water to cool almost to room temperature. I took about a cup plus a little of the chickpeas, about half a large onion chopped up, a scant handful of parsley, a little oregano from the garden, one clove of garlic, a pinch of salt, a hot pepper blend, cumin, a teaspoon baking powder (new can, another possible source of the problem last year) and about five or six tablespoons of flour. I mixed it all up in the food processor until it formed a ball of dough.

I let it rest in the fridge for about a half hour while I put together the topping – cucumber, tomato and onion in a little mirin – and a tahini sauce.

The sauce was basic. Chopped parsley and oregano, scant pinch of salt, ground pepper, squeeze of one half of a lime and four tablespoons tahini. Mix well. That’s it.

Once the dough had rested, I heated sesame oil over medium high heat and used my trusty ice cream scoop to measure the dough. Heat one side then the other (4-5 minutes per side)

Then let them drain on a paper towel to get rid of some of the oil/grease. Yes, that can be the best part but I’m trying for a little healthy here.

To keep with the limited wheat thing, I made essentially a salad with these. Lettuce as the base then the falafel

then the cucumber mixture and the sauce.

This time, we had a success. Both Bob and I cleaned out plates – to the point where there was none left for Jessie.

Poor puppy.

July 4, 2013 by Andrea

Independence Day Experiments

Happy Fourth of July! I am finally finished with the house painting! Bob sanded the bookcase today so I can work on that and get the front room totally done. Also waiting for the new bed set to come in to finish up the master bedroom. Good news – I love the way everything came out and don’t feel the need to move. Oh – I had some very cute helpers with the painting:

On the food front I went for a few experiments. I made a braised pork that was ok. Braised in red wine and beef broth, but still only ok. Not much different than my usual apple cider braise and more work. But the side dish … Lemon curried corn cakes.

I got the basic recipe from the FoodNetwork website but of course didn’t follow it. I made the paste, but wasn’t sure if the lemon was juice and zest or just zest … so I used both and figured that probably was wrong when the paste was more marinade. But I went with it. I had some pretty corn in my veggie basket so I took the kernels from those three ears and used them.

I also added grated yellow squash (drained) since I had it one hand. And I didn’t have shallots so I improvised with chopped onion and garlic. This, of course, meant I had to add more flour to the mix, which was just fine. I also added a hot pepper mix in place of regular pepper to up the spice. The end result was really really good. They don’t look pretty but they have a ton of flavor and it’s not a profile I use (ever) so it was also a nice change of pace.

Best part is I have about half the mix left so I can freeze it and make them again without having to make them again.

But the oh-this-is-dangerous part of my day came after Val sent me a link and said “how about these?” How can I resist a new dessert? So … I made the graham crackers

with my Winnie the Pooh cookie cutters since they are pretty much the only ones I have. Then moved on to the marshmallow fluff. Let me just say this is really, really sticky stuff. I should know that anything that calls for a bottle of corn syrup is going to be sticky, but somehow I always forget.

Getting everything put together was the tricky part. I did manage to pipe the fluff onto the cookies, but … well … by the time I finished they were already oozing.

But they did look cute, and after they were a little frozen I was able to push them back together a little and then dip them in the chocolate – which I should have heated a little more and probably added a little corn syrup to as it got thick really fast.

They are dangerously good. Seriously good. I’m not even sure there will be any left when Val gets in town tomorrow. Possibly new favorite dessert … Although it is hard to beat vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream.

June 28, 2013 by Andrea

Creative Use of Leftovers

Cooking with fresh ingredients is one thing, and I was lucky this week that A. I had the time to cook, B. had good ingredients from my veggie basket to work with and C. came up with something good for dinner two nights in a row. But the trick is the leftovers. Just eat them as is for a repeat of a pretty darn good dinner, or come up with something else. Yesterday and today I went with the something else option.

I’m still in the midst of painting (eight days down, about two more to go) so the leftover route was a good option. That and I’m a little sore in multiple areas of my body from said eight days of painting. So leftover dinner one – short rib rolls. I took some onion

caramelized them down, chopped up the leftover short ribs

and added some of the plum sauce. I let that simmer for a bit then rolled the mixture, a little at a time, in rice paper – easier than anticipated actually – and came up with dinner. I added a little heated sauce for Bob and short rib rolls it was. Somehow the addition of the onion gave this a great new dimension.

Tonight’s adventure was the pork. I thought about pork tacos, BBQ pork sliders, and a pork salad but none of that sounded appealing. So after seeing what my veggie basket had today I decided on a pork pie.

The savory pie idea came for, the awesome Chicken, Ham and Leek pie Emmie’s friend in England sent over one night the last time we were there. I had never really considered savory pies before, but now I’m slightly obsessed with them. BTW Brad – any chance of getting another pie when we come over next time? Just asking. I still have fond memories of that pie. … Back to the pork pie. I found a recipe for a Quebec pork pie. It had a fancy name and great reviews so I started there. But … never one to follow a recipe, I used the basic cooking technique and not much else.

I chopped two ribs of celery, one carrot, one half of a large onion, two cloves of garlic and the leftover pork from Monday. I tossed all of that into a large skillet (coated with a little butter) one cup of veggie broth, Italian seasoning, pepper and a dash of cinnamon. Stir all together, cover and simmer for about a half hour. In the mean time I made a crust. It’s not pretty, but it worked. I poured the filling into the pie plate, covered with what might pass as a top and popped it in the oven at 400 for about 30 more minutes. Uncovered. It came out looking like this.

By the time we finished our first and second helpings, it looked like this.

Needless to say, we both really, really liked it.

The front room (now to be referred to as the library) is looking really, really good. Love the dark brown walls and the new placement of the desk. My huge 302 pound desk. But it works. Still need to paint the bookshelf and get it all back together, but it is looking really, really good. Just our bedroom left and I should be able to do that next week.

If the cats decide they can supervise that is – such hard work being that cute.

June 25, 2013 by Andrea

Cooking with fruit

I’m not big on cooked fruit. It’s a failing, I know, but apple pie, crumbles of any kind, baked apples just have a really weird texture to me and I’ve never exactly found a way around it. Here in lies my conundrum; my veggie basket each week contains fruit – fruit that I generally intend to eat raw but then forget about. So … How to use the fruit but get around my texture issue.

My first idea this week was a chutney. Well, that was the idea before I decided I wanted a sauce, but I started with a fruit chutney recipe and just didn’t reduce it so much that it became an actual chutney. So … pears were the base of this and I added sherry vinegar, spices, chili peppers and … Hmmm … I can’t actually remember. But the sauce looked like is as it was cooking.

The end result was pretty good. Bob really liked it over the pork, and I have to say, I didn’t cook the pears so much that the texture was a huge issue for me. It was a little but of an issue, but not a total “I can’t eat this” issue. The pork itself was really good. Pork loin roast that I coated in ground mustard and brown sugar before grilling. It was almost as good as the bacon bread – almost.

After eating out (or take out) most of last week because of the painting project, a nice, light meal was a welcome and tasty change.

Also sitting in the ice box this week were some really cute plums. Now I like plums, but they have to be really ripe and I generally forget about them as I wait for them to ripen enough to eat. After the chutney sauce success, I decided to try a plum sauce to go with some short ribs I picked up the other day. Not wanting the heavy red wine version, I modified a yellow plum sauce recipe and came up with today’s experiment.

Plums, white balsamic vinegar, onion, a little water, brown sugar, ginger, chili pepper, and salt. Bring to a boil them let simmer until the plums break down. This did take a little longer than I expected, and then I was impatient and didn’t want to wait for it to reduce and thicken. But the result was still really good.

I added the sauce to the short ribs that I had I’m the slow cooker all day

and then made a side dish of glazed turnips and carrots. Note – the only other time I have ever eaten (knowingly) turnips was a timbal I made last fall that was not nearly as successful as the squash one. This is the long way of saying I had no idea if I would like them at all, but they were in the basket and my goal this week was to use everything from the basket. So … baby carrots and two turnips (cut into chunks) a little veggie broth and a bit of brown sugar and pinch of salt. Cook covered over high heat for ten minute, then uncover and stir until most of the liquid evaporates. I didn’t get a sticky glaze, but I did achieve a nice flavor and coating to them.

The overall dish was really, really good. The carrots and turnips went well with the short ribs and the sauce and nothing overpowered anything else. The sauce was the star of the show, but it was a very nice little meal.

And, of course, my quest for excellent brownies continues. I tried another Alton Brown recipe and added some caramel sauce I had left over from a cake.

The results were pretty darn tasty and if Bob isn’t careful I may hide this batch. I did give him a piece … But it may be the only piece he gets.

June 22, 2013 by Andrea

New House?

I get the urge to move every few years. I’ve lived in several states since graduating from college more years ago than I want to admit, but after the Florida move, I seemed settled. Happy where I am (although if a perfect opportunity came up across the pond, I can’t guarantee I wouldn’t look at it) and not really anxious to leave. That doesn’t mean I don’t want change. But this year, instead of moving, I’m painting and redoing the house a little.

The color in the main part of the house has always been very neutral. Bland, but fine. I was hoping to go a medium brown – pecan colored – but Bob was concerned with that color making the house dark and closed in. (Did I mention this whole compromise thing is not what I’m used to with decorating or renovating? Really. It’s a new concept for me.) OK, so pecan is out. We looked at paint chips and he really liked the Swiss Coffee. I like it for a trim color (it’s white … cream technically, but white) but for the walls? Well … if we do the trim dark that might work. From last week’s post you saw the test area – the kitchen island.

We both liked how this came out, so I spent my week doing the main part of the house in this scheme. White walls were not my friend as I started this and by mid Tuesday I was seriously reconsidering.

That is A LOT of white. But I kept going and Thursday I started on the trim (yes, it took me three days to paint the walls – there are a lot of little spaces between doors and the living room wall is huge!) and I really liked it.

Even with the tape, and with only one coat of paint, I loved it. I even told Bob when he came home for lunch that I didn’t care if he hated it – I really loved it. (Happy to report he is very pleased with the results also.) The final product, however is amazing.

So I’m totally happy with the main part of the house. Bob had picked out colors for his office, so today we worked on that.

Bob called it ‘shades of Orc green’ a la his minor obsession with World of Warcraft. The window area is a dark, almost forest green and the walls are a lighter version. I have to admit – it looks good. Really good.

I am instructed to include that he isn’t done with the room yet. I know that, but really, it looks so good I had to include it.

The pets were mixed on the process. Gracie was not letting this disrupt her regular outings or naps. Tigger and Leia didn’t seem to mind so much, and actually liked the drop cloth.

Jessie, on the other hand, spent the week under the ottoman and as far away from the ladder as she could.

Up next is the front room (aka the cat room) and our bedroom. We are also rearranging some furniture in a few rooms and I think it’s going to come out really well. If I can ever pick a color for our bedroom that is. Sorry about no new food experiments this week, but I got a new house – without the hassle of moving – instead!

June 17, 2013 by Andrea

Coconut Cashew Chicken and new paint

The school year has finally ended for me and I could not be happier. I feel like my blood pressure dropped back into the normal zone. Fifteen years (give or take) I’ve worked in public schools and none has even come close to this one. So it is not with any sadness that I see it go, and hope that next school year is far, far better.

But, as I was getting those last things done – ten months of filing, preparing files for next year, getting yet more paperwork done – I came decided to try something totally different, inspired by all the Indian food Bob and I have been consuming in recent weeks.

My veggie basket had some really pretty red kale in it, and I decided to go with a cashew coconut sauce for it and the chicken. I started with roasting some cashews, the combined those in a food processor with honey, sesame oil and a little red pepper. Once that was ground to a nice paste, I took some and added it to coconut milk. It was really, really thick so I added veggie broth to thin it a little. The red kale I kept simple – braised in veggie broth.

The results were pretty good. I have another sauce that I think will go with a lot of things, and we had a meal worth taking a picture of for a change.

This week my project is painting. We started with the island last week and decided we liked it enough to do the rest of the main portion of the house. For reference, this is the island now:

Today I started with the front door area. It is a pain because there are lots of little areas and I, of course, forgot to get the small rollers at Home Depot this weekend. You always forget something. So I started this morning

with taping the ceiling off and painting the boring sand a kind of boring white.

After the first coat was on, I went out to Home Depot, got the rollers I needed, came back and got the second coat on in much better time – and with cleaner results.

Bob is really happy with the results and is working on patching the walls near the sliders for me so I can paint more tomorrow. Right now it looks like the most boring wall around – white walls, white trim is very bland. But I know by the end of next week, I will have a fabulous brown trim and it will look a ton better. And really, If we decide I completely hate it, I can always paint it again in a few years. Paint is cheap. Way cheaper than other renovations I can envision, so we will stick with paint.

Sixteen Paws

The random adventures of Andi, Bob, and four furry creatures